As support in Washington for President Clinton wavers with the prospect of impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky affair hanging over him, the British government has been keen to point out that the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, regards Mr Clinton as a "very close friend and ally of this country".
Downing Street yesterday moved to distance the Prime Minister from speculation that a visit to New York later this month would be cancelled in the wake of Mr Clinton's domestic strife.
Mr Blair is due to visit the UN Headquarters in New York on September 21st to address the UN General Assembly and attend a summit of centre-left parties to discuss what has become known as the Middle Way in world politics. He is also expected to meet Mr Clinton during the visit.
However, the Prime Minister's spokesman dismissed rumours that the trip would be cancelled and was keen to praise the work President Clinton had done for peace in Northern Ireland. No other president of the US had done more for peace in Northern Ireland, he said and the Prime Minister hoped to see Mr Clinton while he was in the US.
Support also came from the American historian and Democrat, Prof Arthur Schlesinger jnr, who said he believed President Clinton would fight the allegations contained in Mr Kenneth Starr's report to Congress.
The historian, who worked as an adviser to President Kennedy and President Johnson in the 1960s, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think he will not resign. He would regard resignation as a vindication of Kenneth Starr, a man whom he - and most Americans judging by the polls - despise."
But a scathing attack on Mr Clinton in the Sun newspaper, which described him as "grovelling" to the American public over his affair with the White House intern, warned Mr Blair against going ahead with the US trip. The two may have similar political agendas, the newspaper said, but he would be embarrassed as the summit "turns into yet another episode in the Zippergate scandal".
Meanwhile, as the hours ticked away before the world-wide publication of Mr Starr's report on the Internet, systems analysts at the BBC's News On Line service were preparing the system to deal with over one million visitors hoping to access its web site.
A spokesman for the service said that US web sites would be quickly overloaded and people hoping to read the report would be looking to access the site on other systems, such as the BBC. "We will be making the most strenuous efforts to have the report as quickly as possible," he added.