A trial on charges that President Clinton sexually harassed Ms Paula Jones at an Arkansas hotel appears increasingly likely, both sides in the case have said. In an interview with US News and World Report magazine, published on Tuesday, Mr Clinton was asked if he was resigned to the matter going to trial, which would become a media spectacle distracting the White House.
"Probably," he answered, according to a transcript of the interview provided by the magazine. "You know, I let my other people talk for me on that because I just try to put it over in a little box and go and do my work," he added.
Sources close to the case said Mr Clinton would be questioned under oath by Ms Jones's lawyers in a pre-trial legal proceeding on Saturday.
Mr Clinton will not be upset if he meets his accuser face-to-face on Saturday, as looks likely, according to Mr Robert Bennett, the President's lawyer.
Ms Jones, a former Arkansas state employee, has sued Mr Clinton, alleging that in 1991 the then governor of Arkansas dropped his trousers and asked her for sexual favours. Mr Clinton has denied the accusations and said he cannot remember meeting Ms Jones.
Mr David Pyke, one of Ms Jones's lawyers, says that Mr Clinton's attorneys have not responded to an offer to settle the case out of court.
"We've laid a demand on the table but they're not responding to it, so I wouldn't say we've stopped negotiating, but they have."
Ms Jones offered to settle the lawsuit if she received an apology from Mr Clinton and $2 million. "Apology language is a fundamental and key part of the offer," Mr Pyke added.
The money Ms Jones is demanding, he said, "will largely go to pay attorneys".
According to Mr Bennett, Mr Clinton will never apologise for something he has not done. He told ABC television network on Tuesday that "the great probability is that (the case) will go to trial".
Ms Jones and her spokeswoman, Ms Susan McMillan, "are of the view that they will sell more books (on the case) with a splashy trial".
Mr Bennett said that the people bankrolling Ms Jones's lawyers, including the conservative Rutherford Institute, "want to embarrass the President". They "don't want to see any kind of resolution of the case".
The lawsuit is set for trial on May 26th in Little Rock, Arkansas. Saturday's deposition, which will mark the first time a president has testified as a defendant in a judicial matter, is expected to take three or four hours.
Ms Jones has vowed to be there.
Her lawyers must confine their questioning to issues that are relevant to the case, a restriction that bars any "fishing expedition" into Mr Clinton's past, according to sources close to the case.
Last week Ms Jones's lawyers held a press conference saying that the Treasury Department had opened an inquiry into why the Internal Revenue Service had begun an audit of Ms Jones's income tax returns. Republicans pressed for the inquiry.
The White House has denied instigating the audit.