MR John Major, on his traditional Christmas visit to Northern Ireland, has acknowledged that the talks process is at a standstill. And he insisted the IRA would never succeed in its campaign of violence.
The British Prime Minister also conceded that he could not guarantee an end to the conflict in the North "in the near future". But he hoped "reason" would dictate that there would be political progress eventually.
Mr Major said the British government would continue to resist the IRA even if it continued its campaign for 50 years. "It can't win its war. It will never win its war, he stated.
While thick fog disrupted part of what was essentially a social visit to the North, he managed to carry out most of his itinerary, meeting political and community representatives and local people in Tyrone, Antrim and Down.
Mr Major was also bullish about his chances in the forthcoming British general election. This was not a "farewell" visit and he expected to be returning a number of times to Northern Ireland as Prime Minister he said.
In Dungannon, Co Tyrone yesterday morning he repeated his commitment to the peace process.
"I will remain committed to the peace process for as long as I remain in politics, which I expect to be for a very long time," he laid.
"We have now hit a hurdle but I think it is a hurdle we will be able to overcome. We've done so in the past. I have every intention of trying to do so again," he added.
It was a theme he maintained when he visited the Japanese Ryobi aluminium casting factory in Carrickfergus, Co Antrim at noon. He agreed that the talks process was "stuck". "But we always expected there would be moments when it would be stuck", he said.
Asked about President Clinton's comments on Tuesday that Sinn Fein should enter talks "soon" after an IRA ceasefire, Mr Major said the President had made it clear that "words and deeds" were necessary to prove the credibility of an IRA ceasefire.
Once he was satisfied that an IRA ceasefire was genuine in terms of "deeds and words" there would be no need for "undue delay" in admitting Sinn Fein to talks, Mr Major added.
"No one is looking for undue delay. I would wish for us to get to the position where we could have inclusive talks, but they must be genuine inclusive talks, and we need to know that any future ceasefire is a genuine ceasefire.
Mr Major reserved some of his strongest comments for an interview in yesterday's Belfast Telegraph to coincide with his visit. He said that the British government would not yield to the IRA even if its campaign lasted 50 years.
"If the IRA continues with violence for the next 50 years, then Britain would not change its policy in the face of that violence for the next 50 years," he said.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, either did not wish to stop preparing for war, "and he has been deceiving people, or he does wish to but he has failed to persuade other people to come with him. I do not know which of these two things is true."
Asked about political leaders in Northern Ireland, he said, "John Hume is a good advocate of republicanism". He also denied Mr Hume's charges that the "numbers game" at Westminster and Mr Major's dependency on the Ulster Unionist Party was why the Hume-Adams proposals were rejected.
