CLINTON MAPS 2-YEAR PLAN TO MAKE THE WORLD SAFER

In a sweeping address aimed at focusing the last two years of his
administration on foreign policy, President Clinton yesterday outlined
plans that he said wouldhelp the world enter the next century with
greater hopes for peace, improved trade and democracy.

"The world clearly is coming together," Clinton told a gathering of
about 400 foreign-policy experts at a downtown hotel, where he was
flanked by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security
Adviser Sandy Berger.

The president, tackling an area he has been criticized for ignoring in
the past, made a series of announcements and challenges to foreign
nations as part of what he hopes would become a concerted effort at
making the world safer.

Clinton announced that he had renewed Mexico's certification as a
nation working to combat narcotics trafficking, although he conceded
that "Mexico has a severe drug problem" within its own borders.

He noted that American cooperation is sorely needed to combat the drug
cartels, which he said spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year
trying to "suborn" Mexican police officials who typically earn less
than $10,000 each.

He also singled out China for its human-rights violations, although he
said his policy of continuing to work for better relations is important.

"They remain unwilling to open up their political system, to give
people a peaceful outlet for dissent," Clinton said.

His remarks came the same day that the administration was delivering a
report in Washington noting that China's human-rights record was
deteriorating. The State Department report found that although China
had loosened restrictions over the past two years, such improvements
ended abruptly last fall.

Much of what the president had to say during his 50-minute address,
made in the same city where the United Nations was created more than a
half-century ago, focused on the importance of America remaining a
world leader and paying the price - both in money and military - to
influence other nations.

"We can't be a first-class power if we're only prepared to pay for
steerage," Clinton said.

He noted that talks on solving the Kosovo crisis were scheduled to
resume next month and that a solution must be found "or NATO is
prepared to act."

The president said 85 percent of any peacekeeping mission would be
borne by European nations, but that America must be involved, also,
much as it was during the Bosnian crisis. He already has said America
will contribute 4,000 ground troops to a peacekeeping force if an
agreement is hammered out.

Clinton also said he wanted to find the path to a lasting peace in the
Middle East before he leaves office and that he believed the various
factions there agree.

"The people of the Middle East can do it, but they know that time is
precious and they cannot afford to waste any more of it," Clinton said.

Clinton mentioned Iraq only in passing, noting that his administration
was working toward holding the line on that nation's aggressive behavior.

And he said the world today was more secure from war than at any other
period since the end of World War II, but he warned that new obstacles
and challenges would face America in the 21st century.

Problems as varied as biological terrorism, narcotics trafficking and
the dangers of weapons of mass destruction falling into "rogue" hands
will continue to threaten the world, he said.

On Thursday night, the president attended a private event that raised
an estimated $1 million, and after speaking in San Francisco yesterday
he flew to Los Angeles for another large fund-raiser.

His presence and his fund-raising attracted numerous protesters
Thursday and yesterday in San Francisco, a common occurrence for
visits by any president. But some of the pickets carried messages
unique to this administration.

"Bill Clinton Raped Me" read one sign carried outside the Grand Hyatt,
where he was speaking, and similar criticisms of his troubled personal
life were common elsewhere.

But the president made no mention of his recent acquittal in the
Senate impeachment trial or any of the other scandals that have
plagued him in recent years.