President Clinton cemented a key building block of Internet commerce Friday, signing legislation that makes contracts signed by computer equal to those sealed in pen and ink.

``Online contracts will now have the same legal force as equivalent paper contracts,'' Clinton said in a signing ceremony near the place where Americas two bedrock state papers - The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution - were signed with the ink-on-paper names of the nation's founders. The president symbolically linked the quill pens used to sign those charter documents with the wallet-size, chip embedded plastic card he used to place the name ``Bill Clinton'' on a computer screen under the text of the ``Electronics Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act.'' Because the new law applies to commerce, not bills approved by Congress, Clinton first signed the paper version of the legislation the old-fashioned way, with an ink-filled pen. Clinton said he believes that electronic signatures and Internet commerce are important new tools of the global and national economies. The measure takes effect Oct. 1. As of March 1, 2001, companies can begin the electronic retention of legal records such as mortgages and financial securities. The new law provides that no contract, signature or record shall be denied legally binding status just because it is in electronic form. The contract must still be in a form capable of bring retained and accurately reproduced.