Washington - President Clinton said yesterday he hopes that Ms Monica Lewinsky will be "permitted to go on with her life" now that she has spoken of their affair on television and in a book.
Mr Clinton, asked about Ms Lewinsky at a joint news conference with the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, said: "I don't wish anyone ill who was caught up in this, and she paid quite a high price for a long time, and I feel badly for that. So I just hope it works out all right."
Meanwhile Britons rushed to buy a biography of Ms Lewinsky as it went on sale across Europe yesterday.
Preliminary figures showed that three million people watched a television interview with Ms Lewinsky, only the second she has given, broadcast on Britain's Channel 4 on Thursday night.