CLINTON SHOWS INTEREST IN BUDGET AMENDMENT.

Byline: Robert A. Rankin Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire

President Clinton signaled Tuesday that he could live with a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget if a safety valve is built in to protect the economy in times of recession.

Clinton's carefully worded statement was not an endorsement or a rejection of the idea - which he has opposed in the past - but rather an admission of post-election political reality: The new Republican Senate majority makes passage of such a measure probable; Clinton is now trying only to shape it.

``It looks like they're going to do it, so the question is, how do they do it,'' said White House press secretary Mike McCurry.

Clinton met later with both Republican and Democratic leaders of Congress for an hour and 20 minutes in the Oval Office. All sides said the talks were cordial and focused primarily on working together toward a balanced budget and campaign-finance reform, but that little of substance occurred.

While Clinton pressed for early action, GOP leaders indicated Congress will take its time.

``I thought we had a very positive meeting looking at how we can solve problems next year,'' said House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. He said if both sides try hard, they may be able to show a record of results to the American people ``by late next fall.''

One immediate issue emerged in the Oval Office talks - what to do about the emerging humanitarian crisis in Zaire, where hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees face imminent starvation.

Administration officials are working urgently with the United Nations and other government organizations to draft a humanitarian relief plan, but it is premature to say what role U.S. troops might play, if any, McCurry said.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said, ``Obviously it is a very delicate problem there, one that needs to be addressed, but I think our caution is justified, but also some results need to be forthcoming very quickly.''

Prospects for a balanced-budget amendment brightened when Republicans boosted their margin in the Senate to 55-45; in the last Congress it was 53-47. The GOP-backed amendment fell two votes short last June of passage.

The GOP House approved the proposed amendment 300-132 on Jan. 26, 1995. If it now clears Congress, it will become part of the Constitution upon passage by three-fourths of state legislatures. Clinton could not veto it.

Clinton was asked about the measure's prospects following a morning Oval Office ceremony where he signed legislation creating or improving almost 120 national parks and other recreational areas.

``I don't believe we need it, but if we have it, it ought to be able to be implemented in a way that actually works and gives the country what it needs to manage a recession because, you know, . . . someday down the road we'll have another bad patch in the economy. I mean, we just know that's going to happen,'' Clinton said.

The danger is if the amendment's language is too rigid, it could force the government to raise taxes or cut spending in the teeth of a recession, making economic suffering worse. ``Then you could actually wind up making the deficit worse,'' Clinton noted.

However, if the measure merely asserts the principle that, ``other things being equal, we ought always to be balancing our books, I agree with that,'' Clinton said.

The president said he wants to get on with balancing the budget and not waste time ratifying an amendment. GOP leaders said they want him to show leadership by laying out his budget proposals first.

Clinton and congressional leaders may hold periodic joint talks over the next several months to see whether that might expedite action, McCurry said, but GOP leaders made clear they have no intention of entering negotiations like the abortive White House summit talks of last winter. Instead they will leave drafting a balanced-budget plan to the normal congressional process.