A besieged President Clinton tried to ignore his domestic political crisis in two hours of talks at the White House yesterday morning with the Palestinian President, Mr Yasser Arafat.
However, Mr Arafat's aides privately admitted that Washington's latest sex scandal was hindering any chance of a US-brokered breakthrough in the Middle East peace talks.
The Palestinian leader emerged to tell reporters that Mr Clinton was "willing to press ahead" with the peace process in further talks last night. However, Israeli leaders made little effort to conceal that they believe the allegations against Mr Clinton severely weaken his leverage with Israel.
Before yesterday's White House meeting, Mr Arafat's entourage was briefing journalists that they feared the crisis could weaken Mr Clinton's international leverage.
Israel's Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, had already made his contempt for Mr Clinton clear during his own Washington visit this week by meeting some of the President's most virulent critics, including the Moral Majority leader, the Rev Jerry Falwell, and by publicly snubbing the administration over the West Bank.
Before his meeting with Mr Clinton, Mr Arafat expressed confidence in US peace efforts, but he was expected to face tough questions on his record in stopping terrorism.
Mr Clinton said accords between Israel and the Palestinians lay out a schedule for Israel to pull back and said he would discuss a timetable with Mr Arafat, describing him as "our partner in the peace process".
"We don't want to keep dragging this out," Mr Clinton said as he posed for pictures with the Palestinian President in the Oval Office. "We have a sense of urgency here."
Mr Arafat, who arrived in Washington on Wednesday, registered hope at the opening of the meeting that Israel would give him what he said he was entitled to under previous agreements, including a pull-back. Mr Arafat said he was confident the US-led peace process would succeed. He met Mr Clinton two days after Mr Netanyahu held two sessions with the US President.
Mr Clinton said his message for them both was the same: "I want to emphasise what a critical time this is in the process and the importance of both parties meeting their obligations."
Although the two leaders' visits overlapped by several hours, they had no plans to meet. Asked whether he thought he should have remained through Mr Arafat's stay as well, Mr Netanyahu said there would be time in the future for a meeting between all the leaders.
In a television interview, Mr Clinton said he had narrowed differences between Mr Netanyahu and Mr Arafat enough to look for "some way we can put them together" to work out a settlement.
"And I'm very hopeful, because I think it's not good for them to keep on fooling with this and not making progress," Mr Clinton said.