President Clinton has urged all the parties in the Northern Ireland peace negotiations to make the necessary compromises to avert a breakdown of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Clinton said that the price of failure was far higher than the price of compromise. However, he added: "I think there's a good chance they'll do it. Even if it's the eleventh hour."
The President, who was interviewed by a BBC reporter at Kennedy Airport in New York, said he was ready to do whatever he could to help secure a positive outcome to the negotiations.
He continued: "You know this means a lot to me. It means a lot to the American people. We have tens of millions of Irish Catholics and Irish Protestants who are deeply invested emotionally, and many of them financially, in Northern Ireland, and would like to be more involved."
Asked about the impasse over the decommissioning of weapons, the President said: "All the parties should fully comply with the terms of the Good Friday accords."
There had to be a "resolution which enables the leadership of the Unionists, Mr Trimble and the others who have fought for peace, to survive, to sustain their position, and to go forward and get everybody on their side to honour the Good Friday accords, too".
Asked if the Ulster Unionists should be considering moving ahead on the basis of pledges rather than actually looking for the handing over of weapons, Mr Clinton said: "I believe on that score Mr Trimble is satisfied in these talks with whatever commitment is made, and I think they should give it a chance to work.
"One thing I would say to the Unionists is that they can always walk away from this if the commitments aren't made at a later date . . . They can bring this down at any time by simply walking out if the commitments aren't kept."
The President added: "It would be terrible to let it come apart now, before we get to see and feel how it really works."