President Clinton leaves today for a week-long visit to Europe during which he will have meetings with world leaders attending the G-8 economic summit in Birmingham and the EU-US summit in London. A proposed trip to Belfast, which was expected during the referendum campaign, has been postponed indefinitely but could take place later this year.
Mr Clinton first flies to Berlin for the ceremonies commemorating the 49th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, and will have a meeting with Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Potsdam.
The Berlin Airlift ceremony will take place at Tempelhof airport, to which Allied aircraft - mainly American - flew two million tonnes of supplies to break the land blockade imposed by the Soviet authorities in June 1948. The blockade was lifted on May 12th, 1949, after almost 28,000 flights had landed at Tempelhof.
The event is being commemorated on the 49th anniversary to avoid clashing with next year's celebrations when Berlin will formally become the capital of a reunited Germany.
The occasion will allow President Clinton to address issues of European security following the ratification by the US Senate of the treaty to expand NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. He is expected to take the opportunity to reassure Russia that such expansion does not threaten its security.
Mr Clinton's main speech will be at the 19th century Schauspielhaus Theatre, in the former Soviet zone of the city. The speech will include a reference to President Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" remarks in West Berlin in June 1963.
After Berlin, Mr Clinton travels to Eisenach, a historic town in former East Germany associated with Johann Sebastian Bach and Martin Luther. He is expected to visit the Opel plant there owned by General Motors.
Next Friday, Mr Clinton will be in Britain, where he will have a series of bilateral meetings with other G-8 leaders in Birmingham. The summit to be hosted by the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, will take place on Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday, Mr Clinton will attend the EU-US summit at Downing Street. The creation of the euro and its effect on EU relations with the US will be one of the main topics. Also on the agenda will be the issue of US sanctions against European companies breaching US laws dealing with Cuba, Iran and Libya.
The president will be accompanied in Britain by Mrs Hillary Clinton, who may earlier attend the WHO meeting in Geneva at which President Fidel Castro of Cuba will be present.