The Government will contribute £2 million to set up an Irish-American endowment fund to enable highly-qualified US postgraduate students to attend Irish universities, the Taoiseach announced during the College of Surgeons reception in Dublin.
Mr Ahern said the scholarships awarded would be similar to the Rhodes scholarships at Oxford University and would "bring world-class students from the United States into our world-class universities . . . As a lasting monument to his contribution to the agreed peaceful future on this island, the scheme will be known as the George Mitchell Scholarships."
Each US student will receive free fees, accommodation and travel for a postgraduate course at a university in the Republic. The scholarships will be worth around $25,000 each.
The fund will be administered by the US-Ireland Alliance, a new Washington-based organisation headed by Ms Trina Vargo, former foreign policy adviser to Senator Edward Kennedy.
Mr Ahern also announced that the Government would provide £1 million over three years for Project Citizen, a programme to bring together schools and youth groups on both sides of the Border. The scheme will be run by Co-operation Ireland.
Earlier, President Clinton had pledged the same amount to the project. Discussions are continuing with the British government to make it a tripartite project.
The Taoiseach also announced a grant of $800,000 to the Irish Festival at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, which will take place between March and May next year.
Earlier, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, and the US Secretary of Education, Mr Richard Riley, met to discuss areas of mutual interest such as special education, information and communications technology in schools, education for the disadvantaged and advanced skills training.
Later, the two men launched UCD's Centre for American Studies at Newman House on St Stephen's Green in Dublin.