The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has concluded his US visit with firm assurances of personal involvement by President Clinton when the Northern peace process negotiations reach a crucial stage.
Mr Ahern believes that the President may have to be called on when, as he expects, there will be an impasse on several key issues.
The Taoiseach also favours the negotiations moving at a certain stage to a "neutral venue", where the key participants could make an all-out attempt to reach agreement. He pointed out that, under the present system, key people are sometimes "drifting out" of the talks and going to London or Brussels.
Mr Ahern did not refer to the Dayton peace accord precedent, but the "neutral venue" idea would be similar to the peace talks in Dayton, Ohio, where an agreement was hammered out between the warring parties in Bosnia.
Austria has been suggested as a possible venue. It is not clear if the United States would also be seen as "neutral" in view of the role of former US Senator George Mitchell in chairing the main negotiations and President Clinton's own involvement.
The President's national security staff is now going to be in closer touch with the negotiations through weekly contacts with the main parties. The deputy security adviser, Mr Jim Steinberg, will feed back the "nuances" in the negotiations to Mr Clinton.
Asked at an earlier Washington media briefing what President Clinton could do to help the peace process, the Taoiseach said that there was nothing "immediate". He envisaged a "draft" agreement being on the table by next March, but with "some key paragraphs" still causing difficulty. If that occurred, it could be very difficult for the parties to push ahead. "At that stage we'll need outside help", the Taoiseach said, clearly referring to President Clinton.
Mr Ahern said that Mr Clinton had been a "central figure" in the peace process in pushing the Irish and British governments as well as the Northern political parties to make certain moves. While the President had shown that he had been able to influence Sinn Fein, he also had "credibility" with the unionists, the Taoiseach said, referring to the warm reception they and the loyalist politicians had had in Washington.
The Taoiseach would not be drawn on the kind of agreement which President Clinton would like to see emerging from the peace process. He said that the President realised that if a future agreement was not "balanced" between nationalists and unionists it would not last.