Adams faces tight security watch on New York visit: Downing Street plays down rift with US. Peter Pringle and Colin Brown report

GERRY ADAMS, the Sinn Fein leader, arrived in New York last night after the Clinton administration, in a last-minute reversal, granted him a 48-hour visa to attend a conference on Ulster.

Irish-American groups welcomed the visa decision, which overturned a long-standing policy to bar Mr Adams from the country because of his association with the IRA.

In a press conference immediately after arriving, Mr Adams said: 'I commend President Clinton for permitting me to come here. I hope to teach Americans a little about what is happening in Ireland and to learn how to build a functioning democracy and a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.'

Asked what he would like John Major to do help this process Mr Adams said 'If John Major is prepared to go the extra mile, I am also'.

The conditions of the visa are that Mr Adams will not be allowed to participate in any fundraising events, must leave tomorrow and must stay within 25 miles of the city.

The presumption is that he will be followed by the US Secret Service, but the 25-mile radius would include most, if not all, of the Irish pubs of the kind used by Noraid, the US fundraising group for the Irish nationalist cause.

Today, Mr Adams will speak at the conference at the Waldorf-Astoria organised by a small foreign policy group, the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, whose honorary chairman is Henry Kissinger. The non-profit group is composed mostly of former ambassadors, including Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who was President Reagan's UN envoy., and a sprinkling of professors.

John Hume, the SDLP leader, and the Rev Ian Paisley are also invited to speak at the conference. Mr Hume was expected to do so, but Mr Paisley declined to appear on the same platform as Mr Adams.

The Clinton administration granted the visa in the hope of 'encouraging Mr Adams to make peace and help bring an end to the tragic cycle of violence that has plagued the people of Northern Ireland for too long'. The administration had come under pressure to grant the visa from a 40-member group in Congress, including the Irish-American senators Edward Kennedy and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but it wanted Mr Adams to renounce violence. It said his recent statement that it was his 'personal and political priority to see an end to the IRA and an end to all other organisations involved in armed actions' helped them reach a decision.

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