President Clinton is still planning to make a farewell trip to Ireland before his term ends, but it may have to wait until after his wife's New York election campaign, Joe Carroll reports.
The Irish Ambassador to the US, Mr Sean O hUiginn, spoke briefly here to the President about his trip.
He "remains enthusiastically committed" to an Irish trip, the Ambassador said.
There is some disappointment among Irish-American Democrats that the policy statement on Ireland in the party platform adopted yesterday is very general compared with the Republican position which urged "complete implementation" of the Patten Commission recommendations on police reform in Northern Ireland.
The seven-line Democratic policy statement says: "We helped facilitate multi-party talks and played an instrumental role in brokering the historic Good Friday accord which has greatly enhanced the prospect for peace.
"We will continue to work towards implementation of the accord and provide continued political and economic support for the new institutions involving Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain."
The policy concludes: "Our goal is not merely the laying down of arms, but the joining together of hands in a new political relationship that enables former rivals to govern and thrive together."
Irish-American Republicans point out that they worked to ensure that the policy adopted at the Republican convention two weeks ago included specific references to the Patten recommendations and a review of the situation of former IRA members facing extradition or deportation from the US.
In his farewell speech to the convention on Monday night, President Clinton listed "helping to end a generation of conflict in Northern Ireland" as one of his foreign policy achievements.