White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry briefed both at early morning and early afternoon sessions with reporters.

CLINTON MEETS WITH EMIR OF QATAR

Clinton and Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, discussed the Middle East peace process and security in the Persian Gulf in a White House meeting June 11.

Vice President Al Gore, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheik Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabir Al Thani also attended the meeting.

The President and the Emir "had a good half hour meeting in which they explored the aspects of the excellent bilateral relationship we have with the government and people of Qatar," White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said.

"The President told the Emir we remain committed to maintaining peace and stability in the Gulf region. We explained our views of the threats posed by Iraq and Iran," McCurry said.

The two leaders "talked about our shared commitment to a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East and the President expressed appreciation for the government of Qatar's support to the Middle East peace process," McCurry said. In addition, Clinton acknowledged the role Qatar will play in November in hosting the Middle East North Africa Economic Summit in Doha -- "an important step forward in the process of building the environment that will create the conditions for peace in the region," the White House Press Secretary said.

NATO CONGRESSIONAL ADVISORY GROUP TO MEET WITH CLINTON

President Clinton was scheduled to meet the evening of June 11 with the congressional advisory group on NATO, McCurry said, "for a discussion of how issues are shaping up as we prepare" for the Madrid Summit.

At the suggestion of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, Clinton "put together" this congressional group and "we've been briefing them on and off on the plans going into the Madrid process," McCurry said. He noted that most of the members appointed to this group work on foreign affairs issues in Congress.

Asked if President Clinton still supports three new members of NATO, McCurry said: "We support the efforts that Secretary Albright made recently with her NATO counterparts to address and move that issue forward, and we support what Secretary Cohen will be doing in Brussels as he meets with NATO defense ministers; and we support, in short, a calm, quiet, collaborative effort to arrive at consensus since we have to get 16 governments to agree to who and how many."

Albright's position briefly put, he said, "is fewer and better and the first shall not be the last."

Asked if he expects the U.S. position to remain the same as it prepares for Madrid, McCurry said: "I think that our views are pretty well known to the other governments and the question now is how we resolve it going into the summit. And we're at a delicate moment, as you can tell, which is why I'm moving my lips without saying anything."

U.S. FUNDING OF ARREARS FOR THE UNITED NATIONS

Asked for his reaction to the apparent decision by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Senator Jesse Helms (Republican-North Carolina) to support funding of U.S. arrears for the United Nations, McCurry said the State Department is "working very closely with Senator Biden and Chairman Helms. We deeply appreciate Chairman Helms' cooperative work on a bill. But we're at that point where a lot of details are still left to be ironed out -- some that are reported today apparently may not necessarily hold up as they start working through the drafting of the legislation.

"So we're being a little cautious. I think it's good that we get a commitment to move forward on the paying of the arrears, and we think it's good and have insisted ourselves that it be linked directly to an effort to bring reform to the management practices of the United Nations.

"But they've got a lot of work left to do on this bill. There's some things within the bill that, frankly, we don't like all that much -- not related to the United Nations, specifically, but there are some other issues that the State Department can tell you more about. But we'll continue to work with Chairman Helms in the cooperative spirit that he has engaged and see if we can't finalize legislation that will satisfy both the administration and the committee.

NNNN