In an opening speech to the General Assembly, Clinton demanded an international response to post-Cold War scourges that "jeopardize the global trend toward peace and freedom."
"No-one is immune," he said, listing crimes like poison gas attacks on the Japanese subway, suitcase bombings in Israel and France, mafia gangs in Russia and last April's Oklahoma City bombing.
"Today I call on all nations to join us in the fight against them. Our common efforts can produce results," said Clinton, who announced a series of unilateral actions to enhance domestic security.
These included the threat of economic sanctions against any country that condoned money laundering and a vow to seize any U.S. assets of Colombia's notorious Cali drug cartel.
Clinton touched only lightly in his 14-minute speech on efforts to end the bloodshed in Bosnia and did not even mention other burning international issues like the elusive search for a comprehensive Middle East peace.
More than 150 leaders were scheduled to speak at the U.N. fiesta over the next three days, the biggest gathering of world leaders in history. While the centrepiece of the U.S. president's speech was unlikely to rouse much disagreement, Clinton did venture into an area rife with controversy in the American political arena when he reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the United Nations, under heavy criticism in this country.
He said he was working on a plan with Congress to fully meet U.S. obligations to the world organisation. Washington owes about 40 percent of the U.N. debt, or $1.25 billion, for peacekeeping and regular dues, and Congress has so far refused to pay
. "The United Nations has not been all that we wished it would be, but it has been a force for good and a bulwark against evil. So at the dawn of a new century, so full of promise yet plagued by peril, we still need the United Nations," Clinton said.
"And so for another 50 years and beyond, you can count the United States in."
Afterwards, Clinton plunged into an extensive series of meetings with other leaders attending the U.N. fete, including South African President Nelson Mandela. He was to cap the day by hosting a reception from which a U.S. official said only "dog nations" were excluded.
The official identified the excluded countries as Iran, Iraq, Cuba, Sudan, Libya, North Korea and Somalia. During a picture-taking session at the start of his meeting with Mandela, Clinton reiterated his commitment to pay the U.N. debt. "I don't think the United States wants to be known as the biggest deadbeat in the U.N.," he said.
On Monday, the U.S. president was scheduled to hold talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at Hyde Park, the Hudson River birthplace and estate of the late President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Their mini-summit was to focus on such prickly issues as the role of Russia in a NATO-led Bosnia peacekeeping operation, the projected expansion of the Western Alliance against Moscow's wishes and the sale of Russian nuclear technology to Iran.
Before returning to Washington Tuesday, Clinton was told another potentially contentious mini-summit with Chinese President Jaing Zemin.