CLINTON, TOP LAWMAKERS SORT OUT ISSUES.

Byline: Adam Clymer The New York Times

President Clinton and congressional leaders agreed Tuesday on a five-item list of issues, from the quite specific to the very general, where they hope to work out agreements.

The list included a tax credit for employers who hire people off welfare, education, tax cuts for individuals, juvenile crime and justice and using the District of Columbia as a laboratory to test new ideas for education, employment and economic growth.

But just as pointedly, it did not include three issues where the participants were far apart.

The Republicans paid little attention to Clinton's suggestion that they include legislation to revise the way campaigns are financed.

Vice President Al Gore poked holes in the suggestion of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., that legislation dealing with the Superfund program to clean up toxic waste sites be given a priority.

And Republicans did not agree to include measures to expand health insurance for children, the suggestion of Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., the minority leader.

After the meeting, leaders from both parties said it had been a resounding success, at least atmospherically.

``The tone was really uniformly excellent,'' Gore said. And Lott said, ``It was an overall good session, and the atmosphere was the best I've seen it in quite some time.''

The comparison was plainly to the time, barely more than a year ago, when Clinton and Republican leaders met again and again at the White House, arguing about shutdowns of the government and how to balance the budget. Tuesday's meeting, which took as a given the idea that all sides wanted a balanced budget, was never contentious.

But for all their approval of the tone of the meeting, held among the Turkish style drapes of the President's Room, just off the Senate chamber, they were cautious about predicting the results to be achieved on an undetermined schedule by task forces whose composition they have not yet figured out.

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., said at a news conference, ``There is a possibility here that we could actually begin a bipartisan process that would be helpful to the national capital, that would be helpful to helping people get off welfare and go to work, that would help young people get educated better, that would be useful in small business being able to hire more people.''

Gingrich added: ``That's not a small step, but that's the most we want to say for today. And if we go beyond that, we could end up starting an argument over how we're cooperating. So I think we're better off just to sort of relax. This is a nice step for one day, and we'll come back another day.''

Daschle said, ``This is a very productive beginning. But it's only that; it's the beginning.