CLINTON, AIDES MEET TO TALK POLICY.

Byline: Associated Press 

While much of Washington lay still Saturday under a crust of ice, President Clinton summoned top administration officials - old and new - to plot his second term, saying his credibility rested on passing a balanced budget.

To that end, participants in the closed-door, daylong ``staff retreat'' at Blair House extended a symbolic hand of bipartisanship toward the Republican majority in Congress.

The meeting, coming just over a week before his Jan. 20 inauguration and less than four weeks before Clinton sends Congress his balanced budget proposal, brought together his second-term Cabinet with outgoing secretaries, Vice President Al Gore and top-level presidential advisers.

By all accounts, the day was a gabfest on policy generalities. But National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said the group did speak specifically about asking Congress to beef up foreign policy funds - with a commitment to repaying around $1 billion in arrears to the United Nations.

Throughout the working sessions, the president emphasized ``the need for us to work closely with Congress . . . to reach out, especially to the Republican leadership,'' White House press secretary Mike McCurry said afterward.

With six of 14 Cabinet members new to the job, McCurry billed the huddle as a time for the president to ``get a sense of how this team will work together.''

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton sat in on - but did not directly participate in - the day's sessions on national security, economic strategy and budget priorities.

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Photo: Top advisers to President Clinton leave the Blair House in Washington, D.C., on Saturday after meeting with the president to hammer out a balanced budget proposal and strategy for his second term.

Associated Press