For years she was dismissed by Clinton loyalists as nothing more than a vindictive bimbo. Now Gennifer Flowers said she feels vindicated by President Clinton's reported acknowledgment of their affair. She sees parallels between their liaison and the President's alleged relationship with the former White House junior employee, Monica Lewinsky.

In a telephone interview from Dallas, Ms Flowers said Mr Clinton's use of a close political operative to help her find a job and his request that she cover up their affair reminds her of the Lewinsky case. Investigators are trying to determine whether the President instructed his confidant, Mr Vernon E. Jordan jnr, to assist Ms Lewinsky in her job search or urged her to lie about their relationship.

The President this week denied having a sexual relationship with Ms Lewinsky or urging "anyone to say anything that was untrue." But while giving a deposition on Saturday in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case, Mr Clinton acknowledged under oath he had had an affair with Ms Flowers, a former Arkansas state employee.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Mr Clinton specifically denied such a liaison.

Ms Flowers said Mr Clinton had asked her "to engage in a conspiracy of cover-up to protect him, to lie to anyone if necessary to protect him. I've always believed everything was about protecting the Clinton power structure and anyone would be sacrificed who got in the way of that."

Mr Clinton's efforts to contain the political damage from revelations about their affair showed how he was inclined to handle allegations of sexual indiscretion, Ms Flowers added.

The Flowers story first surfaced in 1990 when Mr Larry Nichols, a former Arkansas state employee, filed a wrongful dismissal suit against Mr Clinton that included allegations that the governor had had affairs with several women, one of whom was Ms Flowers. It drew little public attention, in part because Mr Clinton had not yet announced his presidential aspirations and was still an obscure regional politician.

Ms Flowers said her affair with Mr Clinton had been over for at least a year, but that about the time of the Nichols suit she was looking for a job and turned to the governor. Mr Clinton agreed to help find her a position at an Arkansas state agency, Ms Flowers said, and enlisted a political appointee named Don Barnes. Efforts to contact Mr Barnes this week were unsuccessful.

"I don't know Vernon Jordan, and I don't know whether he is or is not telling the truth," Ms Flowers said. "But it reminds me of [1990] in regard to a position that Vernon Jordan supposedly arranged for Monica Lewinsky."

Ms Flowers was hired by the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal, a state agency, after an interview Mr Barnes arranged and sat in on, according to Ms Flowers's 1995 written account of her relationship with Mr Clinton. Mr Jordan acknowledged helping Ms Lewinsky get several job interviews in New York.

From 1990 through 1991, Mr Clinton called Ms Flowers to discuss what she would say about their relationship, according to Ms Flowers. Ms Flowers secretly tape-recorded some of their conversations and messages he left on her answering machine.

On one tape, which Ms Flowers played at a January 1992 news conference, a voice similar to Clinton's, said: "If [reporters] ever hit you with it, just say `no' and go on." The voice also said: "They can't run a story like this unless somebody said, `Yeah, I did it with him'."

At one point, Mr Clinton asked Ms Flowers to sign a sworn affidavit that described how an Arkansas Republican party operative had tried to get her to disclose their affair, she said. The operative had spoken to her but, she said, Mr Clinton wanted her to change some details of the conversation. "He really wanted me to say what he wanted me to say about it, regardless of what happened," Ms Flowers said, adding that she had refused his request.

DURING the 1992 campaign the story of the Flowers affair resurfaced in a tabloid. The Clinton campaign noted Ms Flowers was paid for the story.

Hillary and Bill Clinton appeared on the influential US network news programme, 60 Minutes, in the wake of the allegations. Asked to describe his relationship with Ms Flowers, the candidate replied: "Very limited, but until this, you know, friendly, but limited." Asked if he categorically denied having had an affair with Ms Flowers, he replied: "I've said that before and so has she."

After that interview, Ms Flowers said Clinton was "absolutely lying" about a romance she says lasted 12 years. He told reporters: "She didn't tell the truth."

Mr Jim Carville, then Mr Clinton's campaign manager, led an offensive against Ms Flowers.