Clinton faces disbarment

President Clinton gave video-taped evidence in 1998

President Bill Clinton should lose the right to practise law in Arkansas because of his conduct in the sexual harassment case that led to his impeachment, according to an Arkansas court panel.

The recommendation by the Arkansas State Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct brings up again the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-perjury scandal that gripped the United States for more than a year and nearly ended the Clinton presidency.

Mr Clinton said he would challenge the recommendation, which must go to a judge and is subject to appeal before he could actually be disbarred.

He argued that the panel's finding ran against all of the relevant precedents.

Clinton to fight

The president last practised law in 1983, between his first and second terms as governor of Arkansas.

He was governor from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992 when he was elected president.

The Monica Lewinsky case gripped America for more than a year

The committee, acting on a complaint filed by a conservative public interest law firm, said that some of Clinton's "conduct as demonstrated in the complaint constituted serious misconduct" in violation of the rules of the Arkansas Bar and recommended disbarment, the harshest possible sanction.

In an interview with NBC News, Mr Clinton said that he would stick to his policy of saying little about the case before he leaves office in January 2001.

"I promised myself and I promised the American people when all the proceedings were over in Congress that I would take no further personal part," he said, ruling out going to Arkansas to defend himself in court.