Bush envoy pleased with Hain talks

US President George Bush’s special envoy to Northern Ireland today declared his first meeting with new Northern Secretary Peter Hain a “very good start” in bringing peace.

Ambassador Mitchell Reiss vowed to do all he could to help that process, as efforts to revive the Stormont Assembly step up a gear.

Speaking at the Northern Ireland Office in London after the talks, he said: “I’m delighted to be here.

“We had a very good meeting this morning.”

Mr Reiss said it was “a delight” to finally meet Mr Hain.

“I very much look forward to working with him very closely in the weeks and months ahead,” he said.

“The goal is, as it has always been, to try and bring peace to the people of Northern Ireland who for so long have wanted it so very much.

“And everything that I can do, that the Bush administration can do, that the President can do in order to assist, we will do so, and I think we’re off to a very good start today.”

Mr Hain described the meeting as “excellent” and paid tribute to Mr Reiss’s work.

“We’re both partners for peace, our two governments, in driving forward the peace process in Northern Ireland and making sure we get an agreement in place that locks in long-term stability, peace, prosperity and an end to paramilitary activity and criminality,” Mr Hain said.

“And for that we need to engage together with all the different political groups.

“The American administration under President Bush, with Mitchell Reiss’s excellent direction, have been a powerful partner for us in that process and we have had an excellent discussion in taking that forward.”

Mr Reiss will also meet unionist and nationalist politicians in Belfast this week as the Irish, US and British governments assess the state of the peace process following the recent General Election and the local government elections in Northern Ireland.

Today’s meeting took place two days before British Prime Minister Tony Blair holds talks in Downing Street with Ian Paisley’s Democrat Unionists and Sinn Féin.

Both parties made gains in the elections and tightened their grip as the main voices of their communities.

But the meetings are also the first since Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams appealed to the IRA to consider abandoning its armed struggle and embracing the democratic alternative.