The Taoiseach said that history would come to judge the decision of the Ulster Unionist Council to endorse the Mitchell review as "a milestone of enormous significance in the journey towards a new and brighter future" in the North and in the Republic.
Mr Ahern said that the partnership which was central to the Belfast Agreement could now operate for the benefit of all people. The challenges which had faced Mr David Trimble in recent months had been "difficult and complex", he said, and the UUP leader had acted with "great skill, wisdom and vision".
President Clinton hailed the UUC vote as "an important move forward to full implementation of the Good Friday accord in all its aspects". In a statement from the White House the President called the vote a "historic step towards lasting peace in Northern Ireland". He congratulated Mr Trimble on his leadership in bringing about a successful vote.
There is speculation in the US media that President and Mrs Clinton might make a return visit to Northern Ireland before Christmas to celebrate the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. But a White House spokesman told The Irish Times yesterday that there were "no plans to travel to Northern Ireland at this point".
Senator Edward Kennedy called the vote "a giant step towards reviving the long-stalled Good Friday agreement", but he warned that the peace process, while back on track, was "still fragile".
The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, said that it was now possible to move ahead with implementing the Belfast Agreement. "The prize of lasting peace and its manifold benefits is now within our grasp."
The leader of Fine Gael, Mr John Bruton, said that the vote of the Ulster Unionist Council opened the way for all parties "to move from the abstract level of the constitutional argument, which has absorbed all energies for the last 30 years, to the practical level of making the new agreed institutions work for the benefit of all the people of these islands".
The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said that all the people who wished to see peace in Northern Ireland owed Mr Trimble a huge debt of gratitude for the courage and determination he had shown in endorsing the outcome of the Mitchell review.