'Dazzling' Clinton wows press

For the Times it was a ''bravura'' performance from a former politician that was ''quite shameless''.....

But it was not Edwina Currie's staunch defence of her diary publication, but the speech by Bill Clinton which won the admiration of the press on Thursday.

According to the Mirror, Clinton's words were uttered with an ''extraordinary passion''.

The papers were referring to a man who, they observed, still has the power to seduce an audience.

Making love

Bill Clinton's speech to the Labour conference was - according to the Guardian's Simon Hoggart - brilliant, dazzling and charismatic.

After the standing ovation, a senior Labour minister told him: ''I've just been for a fag.

"I always like a smoke after being made love to.''

The Mirror believes it was not just front page material - but on pages 4,5,6 and 7 gives a blow-by-blow account of that ''historic speech'' - which it describes as magnificent, and coming from a man who is rapidly becoming the greatest figure in world politics.

Simon Heffer, writing in the Daily Mail, strikes a more discordant note.

Recalling the former President's ''sexual indiscretions'', he says: ''In the very week when much of Britain is ridiculing John Major, whose sins were far less grave, it is odd that the party of government, should be so lionising the former American leader.''

Military occupation

The Guardian believes leaked drafts of the UN resolution on Iraq which Washington wants adopted would place a full scale invasion only a ''hair trigger'' away.

The paper says that the Bush administration has revealed its intention to use UN weapons inspections as a possible first step towards military occupation of Iraq.

It is a theme picked up by the Daily Telegraph, which says that behind President Bush's stance is the desire to use the inspections issue as a means of justifying war - rather than avoiding it.

The draft resolutions - it argues - have been calibrated to give Saddam an offer he cannot accept.

A number of broadsheets identify what they see as a growing rift in government on the funding of foundation hospitals.

The Independent says the row is about whether the hospitals should be allowed to borrow free of treasury control.

The Financial Times argues that the dispute between Tony Blair and the chancellor has highlighted the fault lines in the philosophy of new Labour.

There is no shortage of speculation about Robbie Williams' reported £80m pounds deal with EMI.

The Sun says the singer's laid down strict rules to enable him to crack the US market.

The Independent thinks he has been offered £10m up front, with the remainder following later.

Northern chat

Plus, in what the paper calls an unusual clause, EMI will take a cut from the touring, merchandising and publishing profits.

Finally, the Daily Telegraph reveals that nurses from the Philippines are to be shown videos of Coronation Street - as part of a crash course to comprehend regional English dialects.

The nurses who arrive in Cheshire next week, will listen to phrases from the likes of Jack and Vera Duckworth.

An NHS trust spokesman told the paper a Filipino would not have any idea what the expression ''I want to spend a penny'' actually means.