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THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                     (Shepherdstown, West Virginia)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                    January 7, 2000

                        REMARKS OF JOE LOCKHART
                BY TELEPHONE TO THE TRAVELING PRESS POOL

                      Shepherdstown, West Virginia

10:05 A.M. EST

MR. LOCKHART: Hi. This is Joe, obviously. Let me just say that the President, after arriving here, met for about 30 minutes with the team, Secretary Albright, Ambassador Ross, Sandy Berger. Within the next few minutes a trilateral meeting will start. I can't tell you how long that will go, but when it's done we'll let you know. I expect the President might be around for a short time after that for meetings with the team, or if perhaps it's appropriate, other meetings. But I do expect at this point that we will return and be back at the White House early this afternoon.

Q Joe, do you know anything about committee meetings?

MR. LOCKHART: No, I don't, not at this point.

Q What about the document that Jamie was talking about yesterday?

MR. LOCKHART: Don't have any information on that. If we do later on I'll let you know.

Q Is this the purpose of the trilateral meeting and the bilateral meeting that were taking place yesterday -

MR. LOCKHART: I'm not going to get into the specifics of the purpose, only that we're trying to move this process along.

Q Is it still the intentions of the Americans to have the four committees to meet before the end of this week?

MR. LOCKHART: I've no change in the statements that both Jamie and I have made over the week on that subject.

Q Joe, do you haven any idea how things are now going to shape for next week?

MR. LOCKHART: No, I have no better sense than last night when you all asked, and we're just taking this day to day.

Q Is there any scheduled time for Clinton to return?

MR. LOCKHART: We don't have a hard time. I just think he'll do this meeting and my guess is we'll be back by early afternoon.

Q How about to return here?

MR. LOCKHART: Oh, to return here. No, I mean, we'll just make a judgment over the weekend when and if it's appropriate to come out.

Q The trilateral hasn't started yet, has it?

MR. LOCKHART: Well, I walked by about three minutes ago and I heard the parties are on the way down, but they weren't quite there yet. So it may very well have started by now, but I'm on the other side of the building.

Q Joe, do you think it's possible that the President could return this weekend?

MR. LOCKHART: Sure, anything is possible.

Q But can you say that Saturday there will be no talks because of the Israelis?

MR. LOCKHART: Well, I mean, given the observances that will take place over the weekend, I would expect tomorrow to be quiet during the day. But I can't completely rule out later in the day or Sunday.

Q Joe, do you know if there were, after the President left, if there were any contacts between the delegations, other things which happened last night?

MR. LOCKHART: I assume that everyone was here. There may have been some, but you should probably talk to Jamie or Phil about that. I haven't had a long conversation with either of them today.

Okay? That's what I've got. We'll talk to you later.

END 10:10 A.M. EST