Clinton returns to N. Ireland

Ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton is returning to Northern Ireland

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is set to visit Northern Ireland for the first time since leaving the White House.

He is set to meet key Protestant and Catholic figures during the two-day visit beginning Wednesday, and will visit Enniskillen in County Fermanagh where the IRA detonated a bomb on Remembrance Day, 1987, killing 11 people.

Clinton will meet survivors of the attack and will have a peace centre dedicated to him.

He will also meet city councillors and assembly members when he returns to Derry's Guildhall Square -- the scene of an emotional visit during his first visit to Northern Ireland in 1995.

The former president will receive an honorary law degree from Queen's University in Belfast, in recognition of his efforts to promote reconciliation between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The ceremony will be attended by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell, who is chancellor of the university.

Clinton was the first serving U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland and has been widely attributed with having played a crucial role in encouraging rival parties back to the peace accord in the crucial final hours of negotiations in 1998.

His other visits have included a trip to the new Assembly and the scene of the Omagh bomb in 1998.

His final visit was to Belfast in December last year when he urged the people of Northern Ireland to stick with the peace process.

The former U.S. president travels to Northern Ireland after a trip to Ireland during the past few days which took in a gala dinner attended by U2 lead singer Bono, rock singer Bob Geldof and film actor John Hurt.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announced a centre for American studies would be established by his government in honour of the work Clinton has carried out.

Clinton said on Monday: "I'll do the best I can. I feel that here the main thing I did anyway was just to encourage other people."

Clinton is expected to meet several senior figures from the peace process including Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, SDLP chief John Hume and Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams.