Give Up Arms, Clinton Urges N. Irish Factions

President Clinton, seeking to boost the momentum of peace talks in Northern Ireland, on Thursday urged the Irish Republican Army and other paramilitary groups to give up their weapons.

Aides said Clinton plans to visit London, Dublin and possibly violence-torn Belfast later this year to keep up pressure for a settlement of the age-old sectarian conflict.

“Paramilitaries on both sides must get rid of their bombs and guns for good, and the specter of violence that has haunted Ireland must be banished once and for all,” Clinton told a White House-sponsored conference on investment in Northern Ireland.

“I hope the parties can soon sit down together to discuss the future and their differences,” he said. “That is the best guarantee of a permanent peace.”

White House spokesman Mike McCurry said officials are discussing possible dates for a presidential trip to Britain and Ireland, with a formal announcement expected later.

The journey would allow Clinton not only to boost the peace negotiations but to celebrate one of the few successes of his foreign policy--and to patch up a sometimes-rocky relationship with British Prime Minister John Major.

Brushing aside frantic objections from Major, Clinton allowed Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the IRA’s political arm, to visit the United States in 1993.

Administration officials said that controversial decision--and the encouragement given Adams at the time--contributed to the IRA’s decision last year to declare a cease-fire and halt terrorist acts.

It was unclear whether the President would visit Northern Ireland, a British-ruled province ravaged by both the IRA, whose Roman Catholic militants seek unification with the Republic of Ireland to the south, and Protestant paramilitary groups that want to remain a part of Britain.

Officials from Britain, Ireland and both communities in Northern Ireland have been conducting increasingly serious peace talks since the IRA cease-fire. But Britain has said it will not negotiate on substance with Sinn Fein until the IRA begins to disarm.

“What we will not do is sit down and negotiate with the political wing of a paramilitary organization that is doing nothing to diminish its stockpile of arms,” said Patrick Mayhew, the British Cabinet secretary in charge of the talks. Mayhew met briefly here with Sinn Fein leader Adams on Wednesday.

Adams said any move by the IRA to disarm can only come as part of a demilitarization of all sides, including withdrawal of British troops from the province.

In his speech to the business conference, Clinton urged U.S. firms to invest in Northern Ireland and nearby counties in the Republic of Ireland to give all sides a greater stake in peace. The United States is already the largest foreign investor in Northern Ireland’s tiny economy. The province has a population of 1.5 million and a gross domestic product of $15 billion.