"I'm emotional, there was no hesitation, none whatsoever," Kirsch later explained, almost quivering with excitement and his face flushed following the long ovations - which he enjoyed in full - given by the audience in the hall. "This is an extraordinary moment, a historical moment. I am not sure to what extent those present here know how important this is for the future of humankind," he said to TerraViva after the Committee of the Whole approved the compromise Statute.

To arrive at that point, Kirsch had to invest all the reserves of his character and determination in the tortuous, five-week negotiations. In the process, he also masterfully played with timing - a move that exacerbated passions on Thursday - but which also created the overwhelming perception that there was neither time nor excuses left for negotiations that had for weeks been going nowhere, slowly.

On the other end of of the hall silently sat David Scheffer, the US chief delegate, who was trying not to show his feelings. But the entire sad story of the US government in the negotiations was evident in Scheffer's eyes, which seemed lost in the infinite, and which betrayed thoughts probably immersed in a bitter defeat that might have been expected, but which could have been less conclusive.

So conclusive that it triggered Plan B of the United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, to come to Rome and dignify with his presence the signing ceremony of the Final Act at Campidoglio square, Saturday.

Tirelessly, Scheffer had tried during the day to reverse the course that the meeting appeared to be taking. A procession of delegates, and even some ministers, had been locked behind closed doors with him, at the India Room.

Back home, the State Department had also been busy contacting key capitals around the world.  To no avail: "They chose to dance with someone else," a US source said.

Around Scheffer, most delegates in the hall was exultant, enjoying a victory that seemed even more so because their governments had dared challenge the world's most powerful country. So much so, that even the sharpest critics of the agreement, the non-governmental organisations, were chanting and applauding as if it was their proposal that had just been adopted.

Delegates of the like-minded group and many others (by Friday evening, everybody seemed to be a member of the like-minded), linked by years of meetings and exchanges, embraced one another emotionally. Some tears were even shed.

Then in the plenary meeting held not too long after to formally adopt the ICC Statute, there was a repeat of the celebratory mood at the Committee: the vote, the counting, the ovation. But that was just the second part - not the one to be remembered, not Kirsch's coronation. Alejandro Kirk