Includes Japan and Yeltsin As the New Year dawns across the globe, the world's leaders have been giving their assessments of what happened in 1998, and their views of the year ahead.

The Japanese prime minister, Keizo Obuchi said he was confident Japan would return to positive growth.

He said its economic revival was important to the world at large and to Asia in particular.

President Yeltsin described the last year as hard, both for him and for Russia, but said he hoped to leave its bad legacy behind.

The Pope reminded Roman Catholics that they would have to prepare for Christianity's third millenium.

And in the United States, President Clinton - facing possible trial by the Senate - wished journalists a happy new year as he took part in a round of golf.