CLINTON STANDS BY HIS WIFE\Allegations are not 'fact,' president says.

Byline: Terence Hunt Associated Press 

Addressing pointed questions about his wife, President Clinton said Thursday she will do "whatever is necessary" to clarify her role in the White House travel office firings and the tangled Whitewater affair.

Allegations about her conduct are "not the same thing as fact," Clinton said at his first major news conference in five months. He said Whitewater questions are "apparently part of the price" of his presidency, and he expressed sympathy for staff members facing big legal bills even though they are "completely innocent of any wrongdoing."

Clinton offered a rousing defense of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and expressed exasperation at suggestions that his administration has not cooperated fully with Congress and investigators.

While declaring that his wife should "fully answer" all questions, the president stopped short of saying she would testify before congressional committees. Republican lawmakers have suggested her testimony might be necessary.

When it comes to the Whitewater affair - involving a bungled real estate deal and a failed savings and loan - the allegations have "virtually always borne no relationship to the fact," he said. "An allegation comes up and we answer it, and then people say, 'Well, here's another allegation, answer this.' And then, 'Here's another allegation, answer this.'

"An allegation is not the same thing as a fact," the president said.

Separately, in an interview to be aired tonight on the ABC-TV news program "20/20," Hillary Clinton denied ordering the 1993 travel office firings despite White House documents portraying her as the architect of the dismissals. She said she only expressed concern "about the financial mismanagement that was discovered when the president arrived" in 1993.

"I think that everyone who knew about it was quite concerned and wanted it to be taken care of," the first lady said. "But I did not make the decisions. I did not direct anyone to make the decisions."

Other documents suggest that Hillary Clinton was more active than she has acknowledged in representing the failed Arkansas thrift that is at the heart of the Whitewater affair.

Taking the same line as the president, she said she would do "whatever it takes to cooperate" with congressional investigators.

"At the end of the day the American public will know we have nothing to cover up," she said. "There is nothing that we have done that should be of any concern to anyone."

At his news conference, Clinton acknowledged that various investigations - including a sexual harassment suit filed by Arkansan Paula Jones - could bankrupt him. He said he felt badly that 20 years of his savings may be lost on legal expenses but "if I stay healthy, I'll be able to pay my bills and earn a pretty good living."

The president said taxpayers should not shoulder any of his legal costs.

Despite suggestions that Hillary Clinton might be a liability in his re-election campaign, Clinton said the first lady will keep a high profile.

"I expect that she will continue to be an enormous positive force in this country," he said, likening his wife to Eleanor Roosevelt in that both first ladies were criticized "for many of the same reasons . . . and from many of the same sources."

Aside from questions about the first lady, the 45-minute meeting with reporters in the East Room focused on the stalled budget negotiations with Congress and Clinton's trip Saturday to Bosnia. He said his morale-boosting visit with American troops would not disrupt the slow-moving deployment or put himself in undue danger.

"I feel quite comfortable about this trip," he said. "I think it is important that I go see the troops."

Clinton shrugged off Republican pessimism about a budget deal. He said an agreement was within reach, with both sides consenting to more than $600 billion in spending reductions. "We're not that far apart," the president said.

He said the two sides should lock in areas of agreement and then defer disputes over GOP demands for hefty tax cuts and tighter spending restraints on Medicare and Medicaid. "We should agree on everything we possibly can; then those things we can't we should defer to the next election," he said.

"We have come too far to let this opportunity slip away," Clinton said.

Republicans, too, say the budget stalemate may not be resolved until the election.

Clinton expressed surprise that House Speaker Newt Gingrich had said that odds were better than even there wouldn't be a budget pact. "I'm quite confident. I think we will (reach an agreement)," he said.

On other matters, Clinton:

Offered federal assistance to states hit hard by this week's blizzard, beginning with Maryland and the District of Columbia.

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(color) President Clinton faces reporters Thursday in his first major news conference since August. Associated Press