Clinton focuses on Asia to safeguard the U.S.

Clinton focuses on Asia to safeguard the U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters): President Bill Clinton has thrown himself into the effort to contain Asia's financial crisis, which may threaten the crowning achievement of his presidency -- the robust U.S. economy.

U.S. officials provided an unusually detailed description of Clinton's work on the crisis, saying he reads voraciously about it, constantly fires off queries and receives a steady diet of briefings from foreign policy and economic officials.

In talking about the president's efforts, the officials appeared to be trying to ward off criticism Clinton did not do enough to avert the crisis in the first place and that his administration has mismanaged it since getting involved.

It also appeared to be part of a wider effort, including Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers' visit to the region this week and a speech by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin on the topic next week, to highlight the administration's work.

"The president's interest in this has been substantial," said one senior U.S. official.

"He reads voraciously... and, almost every other day, I get an article or something from him on the subject in which he's either got a question or he's underlined something and said 'important issue,'" he added.

Clinton has telephoned his counterparts from Japan, Indonesia and Singapore to discuss the turbulence in the financial markets and to urge that the countries in the region make reforms to right their economies.

The officials said Clinton gets a daily one-page market report from Rubin, the former co-chairman of Wall Street powerhouse Goldman Sachs and Co, as well as updates in his morning national security intelligence briefing.

The administration has come under attack from the Republican- controlled Congress, and even some members of Clinton's Democratic party, who fear U.S. taxpayer dollars are being thrown away in the financial bailouts.

The House of Representatives Banking Committee has summoned Rubin, Summers and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to testify on the turmoil on Jan. 30.

Much ire has also been directed at Clinton's proposal to give the IMF nearly $19 billion to boost its resources, drained by the bailouts for South Korea, Indonesia and Thailand.

White House attention has been riveted on the region, with near daily meetings of officials from the State, Defense and Treasury Departments, the National Security Council, Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) and the vice president's office.

CEA chair Janet Yellen said she would not dispute private estimates the Asian crisis may cut growth by 0.5 to 1.0 percentage points this year.

Officials went to lengths to portray Clinton as deeply engaged in tracking the situation.

"We've been a little under the radar because putting too high a profile on it has a market impact, so we have to be a little cautious," said one official. "We use him to intervene when necessary... but are a little bit oblique about it."

The official said the White House was not unduly concerned about criticism. "So far... the fundamentals of the American economy are so strong that it looks like we've got pretty good anti-bodies when it comes to Asian flu," he added.

"We're confident that what we are doing is the right thing on an issue that affects the interests of so many Americans," he added. "We can weather a little criticism. When we've got someone like Greenspan echoing Clinton's view, that doubles up the comfort level."