President Clinton has welcomed the announcement by the British and Irish governments for the way forward in the Northern Ireland peace process.
Mr Clinton spoke to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who gave him the first details of the breakthrough while the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, was still talking to the political parties.
The US President, who spoke briefly to reporters, before his meeting in the Oval Office with the President of South Korea, Mr Kim Dae-Jung, said: "I think this is a very welcome development. It gives us a chance to fulfil the Good Friday accords. It gives the people of Northern Ireland, both Protestant and Catholic, a chance to fulfil their destiny."
He said the US "intends to support their efforts and to hold all the parties to their commitments."
This was a chance for "an end to guns and violence" in Northern Ireland and was an opportunity for the Good Friday accords to be fully implemented by next May as laid down. It also offered a guarantee to all sides, as the process would be brought down if there were not full compliance, he said.
The President has stayed in close touch with the negotiations over the past five days and nights. He had about four lengthy conversations with Mr Blair and also spoke on the telephone to the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, and the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, late on Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.
While the White House would not give details of the conversations, it was clear that Mr Clinton repeated his insistent message that the peace process must not be all owed to fail over details of the timing of decommissioning and that both sides must learn to trust each other.