GORE DOWNPLAYS CAMPAIGN FINANCE FUROR IN CHINA TALKS.

Byline: James Bennet The New York Times

The uproar over campaign financing intruded directly into foreign affairs, as Vice President Al Gore found himself assuring Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng that a Justice Department investigation into whether the Chinese tried to influence the 1996 elections would not affect Washington's economic and diplomatic relationship with China while the inquiry is under way.

But a senior administration official said this morning that Gore had told Li that if ``the allegations are proven to be true, then they're very serious and we'll deal with that at that time.''

Gore had said he intended to raise the subject in his three meetings with Li at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday. But before Gore had a chance to do that, Li raised it in their first session Tuesday morning, another administration official said in a briefing Tuesday night.

An administration official said today that Gore had told Li, ``It is premature to reach any conclusions.'' The official added, ``What is important to us is the facts, not the discussion of the controversy.''

On Tuesday night, the administration official briefing reporters about Gore's meetings was asked if Gore had assured Beijing that U.S.-Chinese relations would remain unaffected regardless of the investigation's outcome. That official said, ``He didn't go into that kind of detail.''

The official added, ``The important thrust of his remarks to Li was that this would not deflect the administration from the policy.'' The official provided details to reporters on behalf of Gore's office, which insisted that the official not be identified.

But Gore subsequently read news agency accounts of the Tuesday night briefing and was concerned that it misrepresented his exchange with Li. This morning, reporters were summoned for an extraordinary briefing at which a senior administration official corrected Tuesday night's account, insisting that Gore had made no such assurances.

Li, officials said in both briefings, repeated previous Chinese denials of any effort to funnel money to campaigns in the United States, which is a violation of U.S. law.

The exchange lasted only a ``couple of minutes,'' the official said Tuesday night, during more than three hours of discussions that touched on trade, human rights, weapons proliferation, relations with Russia and the environment.

Li seemed to deliver a veiled rebuke to the United States on Tuesday when reporters were brought into one meeting for short official statements. ``We believe that the United States, the biggest developed country in the world, should play a more positive role in international affairs,'' he said.

Clinton administration officials downplayed the remark, saying they did not consider it significant.