President Clinton has embarked on an extensive foreign tour which will bring him to Turkey, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Kosovo.
The highlight will be his attendance at the summit of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday and Friday, which will bring together, in Istanbul, the leaders of its 54 member-states.
Mr Clinton will be hoping to play down concerns that the US is becoming more "isolationist" following the recent rejection of the nuclear test ban treaty by the US Senate.
He is also hoping to promote reconciliation between Greece and Turkey and encourage them to take further steps to end the partition of Cyprus. But anti-American feeling in Greece has forced him to curtail his visit to Athens and postpone it to the middle of his trip rather than the beginning, as had been planned.
President Clinton is expected to meet Russian President Boris Yeltsin at the OSCE summit, although this has yet to be confirmed. Along with other leaders, the President will express concern over the Russian military offensive in Chechnya.
"This trip is about reinforcing ties with some of our oldest allies and completing the unfinished business of building a stable, unified and democratic Europe," the President said in a foreign policy speech last week.
Describing Russia as the first challenge to his vision of a peaceful Europe, Mr Clinton expressed concern that it has "mired itself again in a cruel cycle of violence in Chechnya that is claiming many innocent lives".
The Russian Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, defended Russia's actions in Chechnya in the New York Times yesterday. "No government can stand idly by when terrorism strikes," he said.
From Turkey Mr Clinton will fly to Florence, Italy, on Saturday to attend a conference on "Progressive Governance for the 21st Century".
AFP adds: Greek police yesterday found a home-made bomb planted near a showroom for the US carmaker Ford in Athens, police said.