President Clinton has refused to say whether the toll of recent events from his affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky could force him to resign. But he insisted he will continue to do his job while repairing relations with his family.
He is also resigned to the fact that the videotape of his grand jury testimony last month will be released soon and be viewed by the whole country.
A congressional committee is expected to vote for this very soon.
In his first press conference since the release of the Starr report with its detailed account of sexual encounters, President Clinton insisted he was capable of continuing to lead the country and referred to support he is getting from foreign leaders for his aims to right the global economy.
Mr Clinton acknowledged that he still has a great amount of healing work to do with his family but said that this was not affecting his ability to act as President.
He was replying to questions at a joint press conference with President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic. A large number of US officials present in the State Department for the press conference loudly applauded his answers and hissed at some of the questions asked by White House journalists.
The President avoided answering questions on whether he was considering resignation because of the toll on himself and the country caused by the Lewinsky affair and the Starr report.
Sidestepping the resignation aspect, Mr Clinton replied: "The personal toll on me is of no consequence except as it affects my personal life."
He was able to bear the pain better now because he was carrying out his functions.
He repeated his now familiar refrain that the right thing for him to do was to put all this behind him and "do my job".
Pressed on whether he now has the "moral authority" to lead the country and conduct foreign policy, Mr Clinton said: "I have never stopped leading this country in foreign affairs this year and never will."
He cited his work for peace in Northern Ireland as well as the Middle East and other parts of the world as proof of his continuing ability to lead the country.
Asked if Ms Lewinsky's account of their sexual encounters as described in the Starr report was truthful and if he still maintained he did not lie under oath, Mr Clinton said that he had been saying for a month that he had done "something that was wrong".
At the prayer breakfast last Friday, he had laid out "as carefully and as brutally honest as I could what I believe the essential truth to be."
The right thing now was for people "not to get mired in all the details here but for me to focus on what I did, to acknowledge it, to account for it and to work on my family where I still have a lot of work to do."
He cited the domestic agenda such as the budget, social security and healthcare which was now demanding his attention.
President Havel expressed his support for Mr Clinton but admitted that there were "phases" in US life which he simply did not understand.
Over 70 newspapers across the US have now called on Mr Clinton to resign and spare the country a long-drawn-out impeachment process but the public does not share that view at this stage.
A new poll has good and bad news for Mr Clinton. While approval for the way he is handling the job of President holds at an encouraging 62 per cent, those who have a "favourable opinion" of his personal image have fallen to 39 per cent from 51 per cent last February when he was still denying an affair with Ms Lewinsky.
Asked if Mr Clinton "shares the moral values most Americans live by", only 29 per cent said "yes" compared with 44 per cent last February. But 60 per cent say that the best thing for America is that Mr Clinton finishes his term.
The lesser penalty of censure of the President by Congress is favoured by 57 per cent while 36 per cent want impeachment proceedings go ahead.