Bush invites Northern Ireland leaders to White House

George Bush has invited former foes Martin McGuinness and Peter Robinson to the White House before he leaves office in January next year, it was revealed tonight.

Such a visit would be seen as highly symbolic give the past emnity between the leaders of the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Fein.

McGuinness confirmed the presidential invite following a meeting between himself, Robinson and Bush at Stormont Castle in Belfast today.

"He told us he would like to see Peter Robinson and myself in the White House," McGuinness, the Northern Ireland deputy first minister, said.

McGuinness and the former Northern Ireland first minister, the Reverend Ian Paisley, visited Bush in the White House in December last year.

McGuinness said Bush's invitation came during talks on a host of issues including the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Stormont assembly – the final act of devolution to Northern Ireland.

"He [Bush] talked for the need for leadership. He was very strong on the issue although he was very respectful to the two positions of the DUP and Sinn Fein," McGuinness said.

The Sinn Fein leader said Bush had "majored" on the topic of policing and justice and the necessity to have those powers devolved.

Bush had earlier held up the Irish peace process as a template to solve other conflicts as he urged American business to invest in Northern Ireland. A US-Northern Ireland investment conference, which the US president introduced with a video message, was last month held in Belfast.

Flanked by Robinson and McGuinness, Bush told an audience at Stormont that American entrepreneurs "liked the government here and saw it as a good place to invest".

He said the DUP and Sinn Fein's achievements in securing power-sharing had been "unimaginable ten years ago".

Robinson later said Bush had told him and McGuinness in their private meeting he was committed to supporting investment into Northern Ireland right up to when he left the Oval Office.

An announcement of new jobs for Northern Ireland, predicted earlier today by Gordon Brown, however failed to materialise.

The prime minister had praised Bush over his support for Northern Ireland investment at a joint Downing Street press conference and said there "would be further announcements of jobs today" in Belfast.

But the Northern Ireland Office spent the rest of the day assuring the media gathered in Stormont that the jobs announcement was "premature" and there would be no news any further investment while the US president was in the city.

Bush also thanked Robinson and McGuinness in his Stormont address for hosting a series of meetings with Iraqi factions in the Northern Ireland assembly.

He singled out McGuinness for his work with the Iraqis and praised him for "sharing his experience about how folks can reconcile".

Robinson, who has been first minister for less than a week, said he was delighted Belfast was regarded by the president as "one of the major cities of Europe", given that it was included during his farewell European tour.

McGuinness said the US had played a vital part in the construction and success of the Irish peace process.

Security around the Stormont estate – the home of the Northern Ireland executive – was extremely tight. A no-fly zone was imposed over the Greater Belfast area and hundreds of armed police officers cordoned off sections of the Newtonards Road, the main thoroughfare leading up to Stormont. Police were searching hedges and gardens with sniffer dogs in streets up to one mile from parliament.

Around noon several hundred anti-Bush protesters marched from Belfast City Hall up to Stormont, but by the time the demonstration reached the gates and a phalanx of police officers, the numbers had thinned out to around three dozen.

Among the groups at the march was Amnesty International, which had already marked the Bush visit with a silent protest involving men and women dressed up in orange jumpsuits and masks, depicting prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay.

Media access to the president was extremely restricted. The Northern Ireland Office would not allow reporters near the president, or to address any questions to him or the prime minister during their meeting with the ministers.