Officials insisted nothing would be finally decided until Madrid, where they expected "full and frank" discussions. They stressed their support for Nato's "ever open door", reiterating that failure this time did not mean rejection for good, and offered some friendly diplomatic gestures towards the Baltic states. However, US officials also said Washington's stance remained firm and the signs from Paris, which had spearheaded the short-lived revolt, were that France was already in retreat.The dispute and the impression created in Europe of "hegemonistic" US behaviour, however, were clearly a cause for concern to Washington as the summit approached. When Mr Clinton came out in favour of restricting admission to three even before the question had been discussed at Madrid, they accused the US of behaving as though Nato was its preserve.Washington backtracked a little on the detail, but not on the substance. Trying to steer between these two extremes, the US administration has decided that only the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland should be invited to join in the first wave.A majority of European allies - notably France and Spain, but not Britain - believe at least five countries should be admitted, including Slovenia and Romania. He will be mediating, moreover, between two groups who barely recognise the other's existence: Europe's out-and- out advocates of Nato expansion, and an increasingly vocal section in the US that opposes the whole idea of Nato expansion.
Despite this, however, and some very hard work by negotiators in the past 10 days, the summit will not be the harmonious celebration of the West's Cold War victory, nor the uncontested rubber-stamping of new members and new methods that some had hoped for.The US President, who arrived in Madrid yesterday, finds himself in the unaccustomed role of mediator. Barring unforeseen hitches, the summit will end with invitations to three aspiring allies - the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - to join what is acknowledged to be "the most successful military alliance ever". The structure of the alliance will also be tweaked in recognition of European demands for more autonomy within Nato: European Nato members want to mount their own joint military operations with American know-how, but without American manpower. All that, within bounds, has been agreed. John Huang says he will invoke the Fifth Amendment and several Washington-based witnesses are said to have demanded immunity from prosecution if they are to testify.
There is also pressure for Mr Clinton or Mr Gore to appear, but their presence is unlikely.. Few have any compunction about describing the Nato summit that opens today in Madrid as "historic". A senior aide to President Bill Clinton described it last week as "a watershed event in the post-war history of Europe". Roger Tamraz is in detention in Georgia (Transcaucasia, not the US) and James Riady is also abroad. Charlie Trie is in Shanghai and is said to have no intention of returning to the US.
Others include the use of White House telephones to solicit campaign contributions (misusing federal property for party political purposes) and Mr Gore's presence at the dedication of a Buddhist temple in California, perhaps in return for a large political contribution.More serious charges, which will be far more difficult to establish, allege the filtering of millions of dollars from Asian companies into the Democrat campaign and the suggestion that Mr Huang abused his top- level security clearance.Key witnesses, moreover, are evaporating. How far did the President and/or his Vice-President know of, co-operate with or even mastermind illegal fund-raising? Was money accepted from foreigners despite rules banning foreign donations, and did China or any other foreign power try to buy political influence?The cast includes several Asian-Americans and Arkansas associates of the Clintons: Charlie Trie, a former restaurateur in Mr Clinton's home state of Arkansas; John Huang, a one-time Arkansas bank employee who joined the Democratic National Committee as a star fund- raiser via the US Commerce Department; James Riady, a senior executive of the Indonesian Lippo banking group, and Roger Tamraz, a Lebanese-American businessman who wanted US support for a Caspian oil pipeline project.Among the allegations is the celebrated charge that over- night stays in the White House Lincoln bedroom or flights on the presidential plane, Air Force One, could be bought in return for big donations to the Democrats. The question is not whether the fund- raising rules were broken - that is clear - but whether the interests of the state were subverted.More than 200 witnesses have been called and the questioning is expected to focus on three areas. Chaired by Senator Fred Thompson, the chief Republican counsel in the Senate hearings into America's last great political scandal, Watergate, the committee will ask essentially the same question: "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" This time, the purpose is not to get to the bottom of a specific crime but to track the source of millions of dollars that found their way into the campaign coffers - primarily, but not exclusively, of the Democrats - during the last election campaign. A Senate investigation that has the potential to disgrace President Bill Clinton and blight Vice-President Al Gore's chances of the presidency three years from now opens today, after six months of charges and counter- charges about dubious practices in last year's presidential election campaign. If he runs for President, Mr Cardenas will be mayor for only 20 months and PRI militants may do all they can to compound his city problems and thereby scupper his presidential bid.Corruption among the police and a lack of security will be the new mayor's priorities, along with industrial and vehicle pollution, public transport in a city of more than 20 million and inadequate water supplies..
His opponents say a future Cardenas presidency would end in populist measures and economic ruin but Mr Cardenas has tried to calm investors with trips to the US and an about-turn on his earlier rejection of the North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).A change in image from his dour, wooden approach to an almost Blair-style campaign of flashing teeth - coupled with public disillusionment with the country's economic crisis - gave him a landslide victory over the PRI and the conservative National Action Party (PAN) in Sunday's vote.It may be the second most powerful post in the country, but being mayor of this violent, smog-ridden capital could also be political quicksand. Cuauhtemoc ran for president in 1988; he and most Mexicans believe he won but was robbed through fraud. The night erupted into an orgy of fireworks, balloons and mariachi bands."This is a triumph for the people, a triumph for those of us who kept fighting for democracy," said Mr Cardenas, son of a revered former president from the PRI and himself a PRI-ista until he broke away 10 years ago, out of disgust over the party's lack of democratic ideals."Cuauh-tem-oc, Cuauh-tem-oc," supporters chanted as hundreds of taxis drove in convoy around the square until snarling themselves in a huge traffic jam.Mr Cardenas, widely know as el ingeniero because of his civil engineering degree, sees the job as mayor as a step towards emulating his father, General Lazaro Cardenas, PRI President of Mexico from 1934-40, and Mexico's most popular President this century because of his land reform and nationalisations.Proud of his part-Indian heritage, General Cardenas named his son after the emperor who fought Cortes in 1521. After the PRI conceded defeat on Sunday night, a triumphant Mr Cardenas greeted supporters of his left-of-centre Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) outside the mayor's office on the Zocalo, the capital's huge main square, only a stone's throw from the site of the Aztec emperor's defeat by Cortes. Yesterday there was no bloodshed, only noisy celebrations, as the populist politician Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, named after the emperor, won the capital from the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for the first time. Mr Cardenas, 63, becomes the first elected mayor of Mexico City in 70 years, making him the second most powerful man in the country after President Ernesto Zedillo, and providing him with a stepping stone for a presidential bid in 2000. And we know that instability borders on two twin dangers that can ruin a democracy - anarchy and force".. The last time a man called Cuauhtemoc fought for Mexico City was almost 500 years ago.
