Lewinsky has signed contracts to give two long interviews early in the new year. They are likely to be broadcast before Clinton's Senate trial, for which preliminary procedures will begin when Congress reassembles on January 6. The trial itself is not expected to get under way for as much as a month after that. The two interviews, with Barbara Walters of America's ABC television network and Jon Snow of Britain's Channel Four, are to take place in Los Angeles during the holiday season, though no final dates have been set for the interviews ortheir transmission.

The interviews are due to air simultaneously on opposite sides of the Atlantic, with the transmission date likely to be determined by the ABC schedules and the timing of the Senate trial. The prospect of Lewinsky giving her side of the relationship with Clinton in evidence to the Senate trial is said to appall all sides in Washington. The possibility that she might have to sit for several days in the august surroundings of the Senate giving details of when, where and how Clinton touched different parts of her body is a powerful incentive in moves to avert a full-length hearing.

But the interviews are likely to go ahead regardless of the trial. What she says will inevitably command worldwide media attention, and it will also affect the argument about Clinton's guilt or innocence and have an influence on calculations about the Senate process.

The sections of Lewinsky's interviews that will matter politically and legally will be the parts dealing with the questions at the heart of theimpeachment charges: whether Clinton asked her to lie about their relationship and whether he tried to arrange her cooperation.

Clinton trial is silly, says Woody

US film-maker Woody Allen on Tuesday dismissed President's Bill Clinton troubles over his sexual exploits with a White House intern as ``silly'', during a presentation in Paris of his new movie Celebrity. ``We have a good President persecuted for having an affair between consenting adults that his wife accepts,'' said the 63-year-old actor-director. ``The political atmosphere (in the US) is silly and sad.''

Speaking about his new movie opening in France next month, he said it was a comedy focusing on the subject of celebrity which ``has emerged as a phenomenon in the last couple of years''. ``The whole country is about show business,'' he said. ``Everybody may be on TV -- attorneys, lawyers, clergymen, surgeons.''