By Perla Ni
President Bill Clinton, welcomed with a long standing ovation that for at least a moment seemed to supersede the scandals surrounding him, delivered a sweeping speech on his view of the world during his visit to San Francisco last week. Before some 400 foreign policy analysts, journalists and other invited guests, Clinton laid out his international policy vision for the final two years of his presidency.

"For our nation to be strong, we must maintain a consensus that seemingly distant problems can come home if they are not addressed, and addressed promptly," he said Friday.

Americans should resist the temptation for "minding our own business'' just because there is no overriding "threat to our survival or freedom," he told the crowd at the Grand Hyatt. Rather, he argued, to maintain the peace, the United States must remain an active player in resolving problems beyond its borders.

"We cannot assume that because we are prosperous, we are not vulnerable to financial turmoil half a world away," said Clinton in an allusion to the financial crisis that began two years ago with the collapse of Thailand's currency and has since engulfed much of the world outside the United States and Europe.

"We must embrace the inexorable logic of globalism, the opportunities and dangers of the interdependent world to which we are clearly fated to live," said the president.

The foreign policy initiative that he revealed Friday stresses the need for involvement in global hot spots like Kosovo and the Middle East, as well as in Russia and China. America, he said, must meet the challenge of bringing "our former adversaries ... into the international system as open, prosperous, stable nations.''

Addressing the mostly white, invitation-only crowd-only a small handful of Asian faces were seen-the president argued for expanding cooperation "through principled and purposeful engagement with China, its government and its people."

Clinton praised the country for having made "incredible progress in lifting people out of poverty and building a new economy," but said progress could go only so far without freedom. "The rate of economic growth is declining, most of China's economy stifled by state control," he observed.

Secretary of State Madeline Albright, who was headed to China after her San Francisco appearance with Clinton, has in recent weeks stepped up pressure on China to improve its human-rights record, which the State Department said had deterioriated sharply late last year.

The crackdowns on political dissent, like other repression, will not ease if the United States alienates China, the White House maintains. In his address, Clinton noted that China's leaders had long feared that "economic reform would lead to unemployment, which would lead to unrest." Thus, he explained, helping China and other nations maintain stability and progress during hard times must remain a key foreign policy goal. Eventually, he said, China will come to realize that it "simply cannot purchase stability at the expense of freedom."

Turning to Russia, Clinton argued for opening NATO membership to that country and Ukraine, which until 1991 had been part of the Soviet Union-then NATO's biggest worry. As with China, he said, the United States needs to come to the aid of Russia, a nation weakened by more than 70 years of communism.

"Eight years after the Soviet collapse, the Russian people are hurting," Clinton said. "Yet we have as much of a stake today in Russia in overcoming these challenges as we did in checking its expansion during the Cold War. This is not a time for complacency or self-fulfilling pessimism.

"The Russian people will decide their own future," Clinton said. "But we must work with them for the best possible outcome, with realism and with patience. If Russia does what it must to make its economy work, I am ready to do everything I can to mobilize adequate international support for them.''

The visit prompted scores of protesters to air a variety of concerns, including nursing home owner Juanita Broaddrick's allegations that Clinton had raped her in 1978 while he was Arkansas' attorney general. One sign read: "Clinton -king of corruption in the reign of raunch."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.