A SENIOR White House official dealing with Northern Ireland has said she is convinced it will be possible to get talks going early next year which will involve Sinn Fein and with a "ceasefire back in place".
But Ms Nancy Soderberg, deputy assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, said yesterday there is "a lot of concern that this ceasefire needs to be different from the last one. We are looking for a genuine and final one
Asked by The Irish Times how it will be possible to know that a second ceasefire will be genuine and final, Ms Soderberg said: "I think Prime Minister Major laid that out in his statement" last week in the Commons. "Words and deeds are what they are going to be looking for.
She said the White House was also "trying to encourage the two governments and the parties to lay out exactly what the talks will be - that they be substantive and inclusive and address the hard issues of the problem.
Asked if the Government had not indicated that the British statement seemed to lay out new conditions for the entry of Sinn Fein into the talks over and above those agreed last February, Ms Soderberg said: "I'm not sure there are new conditions. It's just a question of whether or not you can get a ceasefire in place and talks going which will be inclusive early next year. That's what we're hoping will happen"
Earlier Ms Soderberg had told a meeting of the Women's National Democratic Club that progress in the peace process had proved "harder than we had hoped". It had been a "deeply fascinating process to watch".
She said the administration had had "some good talks" with the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, last week and had "got his judgment on how best to move things forward". Next week there would be talks on the peace process with the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, who will be in Washington for the EU-US summit.