Clinton will be in Belfast on Thursday, when he will also sign copies of his autobiography in a city centre bookshop. His wife Hillary Clinton will be giving a lecture in the peace building at the University of Ulster in Londonderry.
She is also expected to press for swift movement in the peace process. She will say that Ireland’s peace process has been a source of hope to trouble spots around the world and will urge the early implementation of the Good Friday agreement.
Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, who will meet Clinton along with other party leaders, said: “Clinton’s approach is that if something has to be done in the course of time, do it now rather than spinning it out. The Clintons will encourage everyone to make the moves that need to be made and do the deals that need to be done.”
The push for progress comes as the province’s two main parties, the Democratic Unionist party and Sinn Fein, appear to be backing away from the autumn deadline set by the British and Irish governments.
On September 1, Paul Murphy, the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, and Brian Cowen, the Irish foreign minister, will chair two days of preliminary talks in Hillsborough. Mid-month the talks will move to Leeds Castle in Kent and will be chaired by Bertie Ahern, the taoiseach, and Tony Blair, the prime minister.
Advertisement
The main items on the agenda will be the ending of paramilitary activity, the decommissioning of weapons, policing and the restoration of the power-sharing assembly and other institutions.
Blair has warned that at the end of negotiations in September the parties would either have agreed a way to move forward on these issues “or we are going to have to search for another way forward”.
But now British sources talk of a “two-stage process” in which acts of decommissioning matched by concessions to republicans on security issues could pave the way for more talks in the new year.
Although the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP are urging rapid progress, Sinn Fein and the DUP warn that more time may be required.
Last night Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP, who will also meet Clinton, said: “There is a danger if we are to start to build people’s expectations up and they are dashed at a later stage. Realistically, if you look at the number of matters to be dealt with, to use a snooker term, there will be more than one trip to the table.”
Advertisement
However, David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, warned: “The DUP is winding down expectations because it doesn’t want to be under pressure and any talk by the Northern Ireland Office or the Irish government about stages reduces the pressure on the DUP to move.”
A Sinn Fein source said that his party would eventually enter government with the DUP but suspected that it might not happen until after May, the likely date of the next British general election.
Sinn Fein is concentrating on making agreements with the British and Irish governments on a range of issues before it concludes a deal with the DUP.
One Sinn Fein source said: “We think that for the DUP it makes sense to play it out until May. Why risk a deal now?”