Clinton Angrily Denies Affair

Shaking his finger at the TV cameras, President Clinton today angrily denied having sex with an intern or engaging in a cover-up as investigators pressed plans to seek grand jury testimony from his aides and friends about the allegations.

``I did not have sexual relations with that woman,'' Clinton said, punching out each word. ``I never told anybody to lie, not a single time. Never.''

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton stood at his side, nodding, her lips pursed.

Again, Clinton did not go into detail and the question of when he would fully confront the swirl of allegations imperiling his presidency continued to hang over Washington.

Clinton raised and almost as quickly dropped the subject of the alleged affair with Monica Lewinsky at the end of a White House event on new child care proposals.

``I want to say one thing to the American people,'' he said, wagging his finger at almost every word. ``I'm going to say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time. Never. These allegations are false and I need to go back to work for the American people.''

The president appeared to avoid eye contact with members of the news media during the official part of the Roosevelt Room program, but he looked cameras and reporters straight in the eye with a glare and thumped the podium as he denied the allegations.

Throughout the program, the president and Mrs. Clinton stood nearer to each other than their assigned places on place cards taped to the floor. Underscoring the intense scrutiny focused on their relationship, a clatter of camera shutters drowned out the speaker at the podium as Mrs. Clinton leaned over to whisper in her husband's ear.

Clinton last spoke about the allegations on Thursday during a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the controversy has only escalated since.

Clinton's appearance at today's event was part of an effort to conduct business as usual since allegations of having an affair with Lewinsky and encouraging her to cover it up became public last week.

The statement did not put the issue to rest. At the daily White House press briefing, presidential spokesman Mike McCurry was asked what specific sex acts Clinton would include under the term ``sexual relations.''

``I'm not going to dignify the question,'' McCurry said. ``I don't want to get into descriptions and permutations on what is clearly an unambiguous statement.''