Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has described an invitation to address the joint US houses of Congress next year as "an honour for himself personally and for the country."
Mr Ahern said he was "surprised but very pleased" at the invitation which will see him address the houses of Congress early next year.
News of the invitation to Mr Ahern came from the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
The announcement was made by Ms Pelosi at yesterday's lunch hosted by Congressman Richard Neal, chairman of the congressional Friends of Ireland for the North's First Minister Ian Paisley and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, which was attended by up to 20 congressmen from both political parties.
Speaking this morning, Mr Ahern said he was honoured with the invitation and was looking forward to the occasion.
"To get an opportunity like this is obviously something that doesn't happen too often. America is America and there's special ties and special relationships and special contacts it has had with Ireland in the last century and a half.
"It makes it a special occasion so it's something I look forward to some time in 2008."
Mr Ahern said through his dealings with the Northern Ireland peace process, economy, and European issues he had got to know a lot of people in both Houses very well. He said key issues to be highlighted in his address would include the historical ties between both countries, and the contribution of the Irish in the United States.
"Irish people got a fair deal," he continued. "But there are still outstanding issues and we are pressing that, we are pressing that very hard.
"There's a chance of us doing a direct arrangement with America, but that doesn't cover those people who had difficulties in the past.
"We can do a bilateral arrangement that will help new people, but it doesn't deal with the undocumented. "There are problems we need to resolve in the longer time. Obviously anywhere I ever get a chance of doing that I put them forward."
Mr Ahern also paid tribute to the success of the peace process in Northern Ireland.
"As we head to Christmas time, this year in the North not alone do we have peace, not alone do we have people in the North living a more normal life, but they have their own institutions," he added. "I think the level of peace, notwithstanding all the horrors of the past that people still have to live with, is at a new level and I think that's appreciated by the people of Northern Ireland and it's appreciated by the people of the island of Ireland."
Mr Ahern will become only the fifth world leader to achieve the dual distinction of addressing the Houses of Parliament in the UK and US Congress. He follows in the footsteps of former South African president Nelson Mandela, French leaders Charles de Gaulle and Francois Mitterand and Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. "In more than half a century, only these four renowned international leaders have been given the honour which the Taoiseach will achieve next year," said a Fianna Fail spokesman. Last May Mr Ahern delivered an address to a joint sitting of the House of Commons and House of Lords in London.