The proposal comes as the president faces a new set of embarrassing accusations by an Arkansas prostitute who claims Mr Clinton fathered her child during a paid sexual encounter when he was governor of Arkansas.

When Congress convenes on Wednesday, the Senate's first task is to determine a timetable for the impeachment trial of Mr Clinton in the Senate.

The president faces charges of perjury and obstruction of justice relating to his affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Four-day plan

Republican Senator Slade Gorton and Democrat Senator Joseph Lieberman have put forward a proposal that could end matter of impeachment in four days.

The trial would have no witnesses and allow only one day of arguments from each side. After a day of questioning, senators would debate and then vote on whether the charges against the president, if proven, constitute the "high crimes and misdemeanours".

The plan aims to save the time and expense of calling witnesses and hearing evidence - efforts which would come to nothing if the prosecution failed to gain the requisite two-thirds majority support.

Censure

If, as seems likely, fewer than two-thirds of senators agree that the charges are serious enough for impeachment, the Senate will move on to initiate a motion of censure against the president.

The Senate majority leader, Republican Trent Lott, has expressed support for the fast-track plan, describing it in an interview with Time magazine as a "fair start".

Other Republicans continue to insist on a full trial, including testimony by the president.

"We are entitled to hear from [Mr Clinton] in a very sensible, straightforward way," said Republican Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

Most observers say, however, that the fast-track approach is likely to gain favour.

Fine unlikely

Speaking on the US Sunday news programmes, most senators agreed that any motion of censure should not include a fine.

With no precedent for a president being fined for misdemeanours in office, most senators expressed the view that imposing a fine was unlikely to be constitutional.

There was also debate in both parties about whether the president should deliver his annual State of the Union address to Congress if the impeachment trial is still in progress. The speech, which lays out federal policy for the upcoming year, is scheduled for 19 January.

"I think it would be unseemly and distracting for the president to be giving a State of the Union address to Congress while he was under trial in the Senate," said Senator Gorton.

Senator Lieberman cited the address as a reason for working out a procedure for the trial soon.

"If we don't, we are going to descend, I fear, to the kind of partisan rancour that characterised the House proceeding," Mr Lieberman said - a reference to last month's impeachment debate in the House of Representatives.

Welfare, defence proposals

President Clinton himself remained aloof from the debates, as he has done throughout the process that led to his impeachment.

Showing himself to be concentrating on domestic policy matters, he revealed new policy measures which will form part of the budget to be put to Congress.

The president's proposals include:

• Welfare measures including tax credit for the disabled
• A $12bn boost for defence spending, the biggest increase since the end of the Cold War