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Clinton sees

role in defusing

Indo-Pak tension

WASHINGTON: President Bill Clinton promised continued diplomatic intervention in conflict areas of the world among which he included India and Pakistan.

In his 90-minute last State of the Union address, he told a joint session of Congress that although the United States could not prevent every conflict from happening, wherever Washington's own interests were at stake and where "we can make a difference, we must be peacemakers."

He declared, "We should be proud of our role in bringing the Middle East closer to a lasting peace; building peace in Northern Ireland; working for peace in East Timor and Africa; promoting reconciliation between Greece and Turkey and in Cyprus; working to defuse these crises between India and Pakistan; in defending human rights and religious freedom."

Out of the 90 minutes that he spoke amid continued ovation, he devoted only 14 minutes to foreign policy and world affairs.

Turning to security threats of the future, Clinton said, "I predict to you when most of us are long gone, but sometime in the next 10 to 20 years, the major security threat this country will face, will come from the enemies of the nation's state, the narco-traffickers and the terrorists and the organised criminals who will be organised together, working together with increasing access to ever more sophisticated chemical and biological weapons. And I want to thank the Pentagon and others for doing what they're doing right now to try to help protect us and plan for that so that our defenses will be strong. I ask for your support so they can succeed.

He appealed to Congress for a "constructive bipartisan dialogue this year to work to build a consensus which I hope will eventually lead to the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty."

He said, "I hope we can also have a constructive effort to meet the threat that is presented to our planet by the huge gulf between rich and poor. We cannot accept a world in which part of humanity lives on the cutting edge of a new economy and the rest live on the bare edge of survival. I think we have to do our part to change that, with expanded trade, expanded aid and the expansion of freedom.

"This is interesting. From Nigeria to Indonesia, more people got the right to choose their leaders in 1999 than in 1989, when the Berlin Wall fell. We've got to stand by these democracies, including and especially tonight Colombia, which is fighting narco-traffickers for its people's lives, and our children's lives.ÑAPP