No. Ireland Leaders Meet In D.C.

The contentious leaders from Northern Ireland's political houses were in Washington on St. Patrick's Day, where President Clinton urged them to stay the course, despite recent setbacks including a failure on the part of the IRA to put down its guns and the subsequent dissolution of the land's fledgling government.

"We've achieved a lot over the last two years, and we're having a bit of difficulty now," Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern told CBS News Early Show Co-Anchor Jane Clayson Friday morning. "As the president said last night, we don't want to see any more deaths. We have to find a way forward."

Ahern said the current visit to Washington, a city that has taken an outsized interest in the process in recent years, should aim to shore up agreements already reached over the Northern Ireland situation, rather than attempting any new breakthroughs.

"The main difficulty is arms," Ahern said, adding, "Over a period of time it is possible that arms will be decommissioned."

But Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was less optimistic Friday morning, criticizing the British government for dissolving the new parliament:

"You can see that the guns are not just in the hands of the IRA," Adams told Clayson, holding up a map of British and Unionist positions in Northern Ireland.

Adams thanked Clinton for his work on Northern Ireland and said that sooner or later the country would work out its troubles.

Thursday night in Washington, President Clinton urged key players in Northern Ireland to restore the region's coalition government and avoid a renewal of violence.

"Whatever the differences," Clinton said, "it's not worth another life."

Clinton spoke to a gala dinner attended by such influential leaders as Adams and David Trimble of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Unionists have refused to go back into the coalition government before the IRA starts doing away with its weaponry. But the IRA has never clearly said whether it will disarm. Sinn Fein, eager to regain its two posts within the suspended 12-member administration, argues the IRA might eventually disarm but only if unionists allow the four-party coalition to work without obstruction.

The president told the leaders joining more than 1,000 guests at the annual America Ireland Fund dinner Thursday that he was proud of the supporting role he had played in the peace process, noting that "the cease-fires now are measured in years, not weeks."