Congress, meanwhile, seemed to be slowly moving towards commencing impeachment proceedings in the judiciary committee on Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

In a four-page letter to Ken Starr and his deputy Rebert Bittman, Clinton's personal lawyer David Kendall said that fundamental fairness required that he and his client be allowed to respond to any `report' that may constitute grounds for an `impeachment'.

Kendal asked Starr to give Clinton's legal team ``one week to submit a written reply... together with your draft documents for possible transmission to the house of representative.''

Starr's staff has been working through the labour day holiday weekend, trying to finish the impeachment report against Clinton in sex-and perjuryinvestigation.

The report could charge possible perjury and obstruction of justice and give graphic descriptions in raw language of some of the sex acts involved, the US media says.

What follows next? Speculations are rife whether there would actually be a recommendation by the lower house for an impeachment trial, whether the senate would hold the trial presided over by the chief justice, whether Clinton would be removed from office as a result or he would resign.

Clinton too has strong supporters who believe that the whole issue has become a political vendetta which would die out down. Clinton last month admitted to having had an affair with Lewinsky but denied he had ever told anyone to lie about it.