Washington in brief

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 6, 2001

Bush meets Canadian leader

WASHINGTON -- President Bush stepped into foreign policy for the first time Monday, meeting with Canada's prime minister, Jean Chretien, and rebutting talk that Bush prefers Mexico to the United States' neighbor to the north. "I've got a preference for friends," Bush said.

Bush and Chretien, along with aides, spent about 40 minutes in the Oval Office, where they discussed among other things trade and a shared passion for bass fishing. They then moved to the president's residence for dinner.

The meeting was Bush's first face-to-face session with a world leader since taking office Jan. 20. It was arranged after Bush said he would visit Mexico, not Canada, in his first foreign trip this month, abandoning the Canada-first precedent of his three most recent predecessors.

Clinton speaks at Florida conference

BOCA RATON -- Bill Clinton's $100,000 speaking appearance at a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. conference Monday led to threats by some of the investment firm's customers to take their business elsewhere.

The Wall Street giant acknowledged Monday that it has received several phone calls from customers irate that the former president was speaking at the company's annual junk-bond conference. The speech, Clinton's first since leaving office, was closed to the press and public.

When Clinton arrived Monday evening, his limousine carried him past about a dozen demonstrators protesting his appearance and carrying signs that read "Everything Still for Sale" and "Clinton Bonds Lack Principle."

The company said in a statement Clinton was hired by its institutional division, which handles large investors such as pension plans, and not by its retail division, which handles individuals.

Bush delays forest plan for 2 months

WASHINGTON -- A ban on road-building and most logging in a third of the country's national forests was delayed for two months Monday by the Bush administration.

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