AFP - US President Barack Obama praised two key political figures in North Ireland for "charting a historic path" towards peace following an agreement on a landmark power transfer deal.

Obama singled out one-time foes First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness at two receptions marking Saint Patrick's Day, a week after the deal was endorsed by the Northern Ireland assembly.

"I want to salute First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness for their outstanding leadership, their continuing example," Obama said.

"It is such leadership that keeps me convinced that our best days -- for this legislative body, for this nation, for Ireland, and for Northern Ireland, and for the friendship between our peoples -- those best days are still ahead."

The president also said that "remarkable progress" in Northern Ireland was also due to the work of visiting Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown, as well as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Later, at a reception at the White House, Obama renewed his praise for Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party and McGuinness, of Sinn Fein, and lauded them as "two men who have stood together with conviction to chart a historic path towards peace."

With a nod to political wrangling as his historic health care plan hurtles towards a final vote, Obama said: "we were thinking of sending them up to Congress tomorrow to see if they can share some of their secrets."

Leaders of the two main power-sharing parties in Northern Ireland this month voted in favor of switching control over policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.

Brown hailed the deal as the final stage in creating a devolved settlement in Northern Ireland, which was wracked by three decades of violence before a first peace agreement in 1998.

Earlier Wednesday, in an Oval Office meeting, Obama thanked Cowen for his support on "critical" global issues, and feted the Irish diaspora in America on Saint Patrick's Day.

He also praised the Irish government for the role its police were playing in training police forces in Afghanistan and said 36 million people who trace their lineage to Ireland had made a great contribution to American life.

On a day that the fountains on the White House lawn were dyed green, the president also said he agreed with Cowen that "the Irish government punches above its weight on a whole host of critical issues."