The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, last night expressed his personal support for Bill Clinton, joining him at a political seminar as the President awaited America's verdict on hours of televised testimony in the Monica Lewinsky affair.
Mr Blair was the first major world leader to stand side by side with Mr Clinton after the four-hour airing of his grand jury evidence, sharing a platform at New York University to discuss democracy and the so-called Third Way in politics.
The prime minister and his aides had fought throughout the day to lift the shadow of the President's trial by TV from his brief visit to Wall Street and the United Nations.
But Downing Street made plain Mr Blair had never wavered from his belief that he was not personally a "fair-weather friend", and that the UK's national interest was best served by maintaining good relations with the White House.
Last night he demonstrated that, by joining Mr Clinton at the "leaders' panel" discussion in the university law school - a longstanding event organised through Mrs Hillary Clinton's office.
The discussion was on strengthening democracy across the globe and was being used by Mr Blair to launch his vision of the so-called Third Way in politics - between old-style socialism and free-market capitalism.
The Prime Minister laid stress on the value of strong families in a pamphlet on the Third Way he published earlier today.
During his whistle-stop visit, Mr Blair addressed the United Nations, offering to host an antiterrorism summit in London this autumn. And in a speech to the New York Stock Exchange, he outlined plans for wide-ranging reforms to international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund over the next 12 months in his capacity as chairman of the G7 group of industrialised nations.
Throughout the day he steadfastly refused to be drawn into commenting on President Clinton's plight. "He's doing the job he's supposed to be doing out there, which is not commenting on the President's private life," said one aide.
But in both his speeches, Mr Blair stressed the need for determined world leadership.
In his speech to the UN, Mr Blair called for a "new kind of response" to the crisis in Kosovo, one that Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic would ignore at his peril.
"Continuation of military repression will inevitably lead to a new kind of response," he said without specifying what measures would be taken, although NATO has drawn up contingency plans.
Addressing the General Assembly, Mr Blair said: "Our patience with broken promises and phony assurances is exhausted. It almost defies believe that yet again, the security forces of President Milosevic are ignoring the clear will of the international community and inflicting brutality and repression on those they claim to see as their fellow-citizens," he said.
Mr Blair said he expected action this week on a Security Council resolution proposed by Britain and France that would call for an immediate ceasefire and demand "an urgent end to the trampling on the rights of the inhabitants of Kosovo".
President Milosevic would ignore such a resolution at his peril, he warned.
But he did not mention a worldwide ban on the Yugoslav airline JAT that was in a previous draft of the resolution, perhaps because of objections from Russia, a traditional ally of Serbia.
The resolution would be under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which makes compliance mandatory. It has not been introduced in the council yet and does not authorise the use of force, diplomats said.
Mr Blair said he recognised that separatist Kosovo guerrillas contributed to the current appalling situation. "But nothing can justify the scorched-earth tactics and forcible creation of hundreds of thousands of refugees," he said.
Britain believes Mr Milosevic has flouted repeated promises to seek a negotiated solution in Kosovo, a province of Serbia where ethnic Albanians make up nine-tenths of the population and where his troops have been trying to crush an armed revolt by the Kosovo Liberation Army.
With cold weather setting in, UN agencies fear a major humanitarian tragedy, with more than 50,000 ethnic Albanians chased from their homes living in forests and on mountainsides.
Mr Blair's UN speech was scheduled a few hours before he met Mr Clinton at a New York University seminar yesterday afternoon. A spokesman in London said the prime minister still regarded the beleaguered US president as a "friend and ally".