DESPITE the latest IRA explosion in London, the White House is continuing behind the scenes efforts to get the ceasefire restored, a senior administration official confirmed yesterday.
The official praised the loyalist paramilitary organisations for their restraint in not resuming their campaign in retaliation, saying this was crucial to the efforts to retrieve the situation.
In the meantime, no immediate decisions will be made by the White House on policy towards Sinn Fein.
Mr Gerry Adams had applied before the Docklands bomb on February 7th for an extension of his US visa, which has been regularly renewed since September 1994 on a three monthly basis.
The Sinn Fein leader was planing to attend a fund raising event in New York on March 12th.
It had been expected he would join other Irish political figures, including the Taoiseach Mr Bruton, at a St Patrick's Day party in the White House on March 15th.
The US administration made four concessions to Sinn Fein following the IRA ceasefire of August 31st, 1994 the lifting of a ban on contacts with US officials the granting of visa waivers to Sinn Fein members formerly excluded under immigration law top level access to the administration, and permission to raise funds in the US.
In present circumstances it is highly unlikely that fund raising will be allowed to Mr Adams, even if a new visa is granted. No decision, however, is likely on any aspect of White House relations with Sinn Fein until March when the St Patrick's week events will force the issue.
Mr Adams is regarded by the White House as a crucial figure dedicated to the peace process who persuaded the IRA to lay down its arms once and could do so again.
President Clinton still plans to attend a function organised by Irish America magazine in New York on March 11th, at which he will be honoured as Irish American of the year, the official said. He is also due to march in the St Patrick's Day parade in Chicago on March 17th.
"Our efforts are now focused on getting the ceasefire back on track," the official said. "The White House is not addressing these issues now. We hope the ceasefire is restored."
The decisions will be tough ones for the administration, which until recently was able to point to Northern Ireland as a success for its policy of helping internationalise the conflict and ending Sinn Fein's isolation.
Prominent Irish American figures who went out on a limb for Mr Adams when the administration was making key decisions in the past 18 months are likely to find the political climate more hostile to Sinn Fein as long as the IRA campaign continues.
The end of the ceasefire has raised the prospects, already jeopardy fading, of a follow up investment conference to help revive Northern Ireland's economy.
President Clinton presided over a major investment conference in Washington in May last year to which all British and Irish political parties were invited along with leading industrialists and company executives in the United States.