In a dramatic turnabout, President Clinton is preparing to testify in the Monica Lewinsky investigation after months of refusing to do so.
The move came as the independent counsel, Mr Kenneth Starr, was apparently getting ready to serve a subpoena on the President to force his testimony.
If negotiations between the White House lawyers and Mr Starr are successful, Mr Clinton will become the first President to testify to a grand jury investigating whether he has committed a criminal offence.
In recent months, President Clinton is believed to have refused Mr Starr on six occasions when requests were made to him to give voluntary testimony about his relationship with the former White House intern, Ms Monica Lewinsky, and whether he tried to persuade her to lie under oath about their relationship.
President Clinton last January denied under oath to lawyers pursuing a civil action by Ms Paula Jones that he ever had sex with Ms Lewinsky or asked her to commit perjury as part of a cover-up.
Ms Lewinsky also denied under oath that she had a sexual relationship with Mr Clinton. But in conversations with a former colleague, Ms Linda Tripp, she has allegedly admitted to having an affair with Mr Clinton over 17 months while she was working in the White House and later at the Pentagon. Tapes of 20 hours of the conversations have been played to the grand jury.
Up to early this morning, the White House had not confirmed that President Clinton would testify in the Lewinsky investigation, but his press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said that his attorney, Mr David Kendall, was in negotiation with Mr Starr over how the President would provide information to the grand jury.
Throughout most of this week, secret service agents who guard the White House have been questioned by Mr Starr before the grand jury. This was another victory for Mr Starr, as the Clinton administration had strongly opposed the secret service giving evidence until the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court ruled against the President's lawyers.
It was not clear yesterday why President Clinton and his lawyers changed their minds about testifying. But it was noted that Mr Dick Gephardt, Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, had issued a call for the President to give testimony and not resist a subpoena from Mr Starr. Democrats facing into a mid-term election are not happy about having to campaign while a legal battle is going on between President Clinton and Mr Starr over whether the President should testify in an investigation concerning himself.
Some White House sources are claiming that it now looks as if Mr Starr has failed to come up with any evidence which would incriminate President Clinton and lead to his impeachment. They say that it is now in the President's "political interest" to give testimony.
It is unlikely that the President would travel in person to the Federal court in Washington to testify. Instead, he would probably give videotaped testimony in the White House.
The President has previously testified on videotape for grand juries investigating his failed Whitewater land deal and the Paula Jones sexual harassment suit.