Mitchell To Leave Ireland Talks

The U.S. diplomat overseeing efforts to salvage Northern Ireland's Good Friday peace accord said today that he would soon conclude his mission after briefing British, Irish and U.S. leaders.

Former U.S. Senate majority leader George Mitchell has spent nine weeks trying to coax key Belfast parties to resolve their conflicting demands on the landmark agreement, which he helped achieve 18 months ago.

Mitchell said he was adjourning his Belfast talks to meet later today with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Dublin, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Wednesday.

He then planned to fly to Washington to brief President Clinton, who persuaded Mitchell four years ago to lead U.S. diplomacy in Northern Ireland. More than 3,000 people have been slain in three decades of conflict in the British-ruled province.

"I will renew my meetings with the parties in Belfast on Monday. I expect to have my report ready shortly thereafter," Mitchell said in a prepared statement that didn't indicate whether his recommendations would be made public.

Northern Ireland's major British Protestant party, the Ulster Unionists, has refused for the past year to establish the central goal of the accord a new Protestant-Catholic government for the province. It would gradually receive powers from the British government in London, in direct control here since 1972.

Earlier today, hope that the groups could reach an agreement this week disappeared when Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble departed for the United States for long-booked engagements.

Trimble, who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize with moderate Catholic politician John Hume, is supposed to lead the new government. But he has insisted for the past year that the outlawed Irish Republican Army first must start to disarm, another goal contained in the accord.

The IRA-linked Sinn Fein party, which draws support from hard-line Catholics, is entitled to two of the prospective government's 12 Cabinet posts.

Trimble was scheduled to speak at Ball State University on Wednesday and at the Indianapolis Humanities Council on Thursday, then brief the White House's deputy national security adviser, Jim Steinberg, in Washington on Friday.

Without naming particular parties, Mitchell said his past nine weeks' work had confirmed that all parties that support the Good Friday accord were "sincere and acting in good faith."

Britain's minister responsible for Northern Ireland, Peter Mandelson, praised Mitchell's "Herculean efforts."

Stressing the need for patience, Mandelson said the goal of all parties remained "an enduring agreement on a series of difficult and interlocking issues which have all got to be resolved."

The accord indicated that the IRA should disarm by next May, but the outlawed group has rejected the goal. Though observing a 1997 cease-fire, the IRA has maintained its extensive network of hidden weapons dumps in the neighboring Irish Republic