Washington - The White House responded yesterday to calls for President Clinton to abandon legalistic denials of perjury charges, saying he had already acknowledged wrongdoing in his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky.
Leading Congressional Democrats, including the Senate Democratic leader, Mr Tom Daschle and the House Democratic leader, Representative Richard Gephardt, earlier yesterday urged Mr Clinton to abandon "hair-splitting" legalistic defences of charges in the Starr Report.
The White House spokesman, Mr Jim Kennedy, said Mr Clinton's admissions should not be obscured by the work his lawyers were doing to defend him from allegations of perjury and other misconduct in the report.