US may back ceasefire assessor, US envoy says

THE US Government would consider backing the appointment of an independent assessor of the North’s paramilitary ceasefires — if it was convinced that would help advance the peace process.

That is the view of US President George W. Bush’s envoy on Northern Ireland, Richard Haas, who is on a fact-finding visit to Dublin, Belfast and London.

Mr Haas held talks in Dublin yesterday with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen. The US envoy recalled that he was in Dublin on September 11 last year when the terrorist attacks struck at the heart of America.