President Clinton has described himself as "elated" with the implementation of the Belfast Agreement but has warned against putting immediate pressure on Sinn Fein and the IRA to deliver on decommissioning. It was now "possible to believe the day of the gun and the bomb is in fact over". The people of Northern Ireland now "have the power to shape their own destiny and choose their own future", Mr Clinton said in Seattle as he signed an agreement to outlaw child labour abuses.
Later, in a telephone interview with The Irish Times and five other newspaper correspondents, Mr Clinton said everyone should try not to "muddy the waters" and should give the Mitchell formula for decommissioning a chance.
He said this should be "a day of hope". Asked if pressure was now on the republican movement to deliver on decommissioning and if he would do anything to encourage it to move, Mr Clinton said he could not see why it was not possible to make progress.
"We should not underestimate the importance of the IRA naming a representative to the General de Chastelain commission," he said. He had no reason other than to hope that step would lead to positive developments.
Mr Clinton refused to speculate on whether Sinn Fein should be expelled from the Assembly if the IRA did not start decommissioning next February. "I personally believe there will be progress on decommissioning because of the way the parties have confidence in General de Chastelain," he replied.
"But I think we all of us ought not to muddy the waters. We ought to give the de Chastelain commission a chance to work. That's what I intend to do.
"Anything that any of us say now to make it harder for this commission to do what is obviously a critical part of this whole Good Friday agreement would be counter-productive and that is the last thing I want to do."
The President said he had no immediate plans to make a return visit to Ireland, although he would have loved to have been in Belfast yesterday. "I will go any time I think I can be helpful, but I have to be guided to some extent by the people on the ground there."
Mr Clinton, answering a question from The Irish Times about whether he saw the agreement as a major foreign policy achievement, replied: "I am very proud of the role I played and I have worked hard from the beginning of my tenure for the Irish peace process. If I had a role and a positive effect on the peace process, then I am very grateful I had a chance to do so.
"I don't think it is my achievement, but that of the people of Northern Ireland and the leaders of the Republic and Great Britain and all those who helped them and especially George Mitchell."
Since the agreement was signed he had stayed in "regular touch with all the parties. I tried to keep things going and help resolve disputes." There were leaders on the ground representing people in Northern Ireland who "desperately wanted this day to come. They had to deal with the accumulated resentment and fears and distrust of the past and real differences of opinion over what could and could not be done.
"Maybe just knowing that the United States was pulling for them, trying to be fair to everybody and push the process forward may have been as helpful as any specific thing I or anyone else did or suggested," he said.
Mr Clinton said he would do all he could to encourage further US investment in Northern Ireland, especially in disadvantaged areas.