Clinton to attend APEC despite election anxiety.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 Kyodo

U.S. President Bill Clinton will head to Brunei on Sunday for farewell meetings with Asia-Pacific leaders despite confusion over the result of Tuesday's presidential election at home, National Security Adviser Samuel Berger announced Thursday.

Berger said the president will attend his final Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit slated for next Wednesday and Thursday in the capital of the tiny oil-rich sultanate, where he will also hold separate meetings with the leaders of Russia, South Korea, Japan and China.

When asked if the president was considering skipping this year's APEC summit over the election turmoil, Berger said, ''The business of the president goes on, business of America goes on.''

''(APEC has) been a very useful forum for the United States. It would be, I think, a loss to the United States if the president of the United States were not present there with the leaders of all the rest of Asia,'' Berger said.

Clinton is expected to hold talks with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung on Wednesday and will meet the following day with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori.

Berger said efforts to reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula as well as bilateral issues will be discussed at both meetings.

Clinton will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, he said.

After the end of the APEC summit Thursday evening, the president will head to Vietnam for a historic visit. Clinton will be the first U.S. president to visit a unified Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

Clinton will hold talks with Vietnamese President Tran Duc Luong on Friday next week and will outline the U.S. vision for bilateral ties in a speech to students at Hanoi National University, Berger said.