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Hillary may not attend Beijing moot over detainee row

WASHINGTON: First lady Hillary Clinton wants to attend a United Nations conference on women in Beijing next month, but has put off her decision until the last minute because of Beijing's detention of a U.S. human rights activist, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, quoting U.S. officials.

The officials said Mrs. Clinton has a "passionate desire" to attend the meeting, but deferred to the advice of the president's national security team, which has strong misgivings if there is no progress in the case of Chinese American activist Harry Wu.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher and deputy national security adviser Sandy Berger met with Mrs. Clinton late on Monday to outline the pros and cons of her attending the meeting.

As a result, the official said, "We decided to lay low until next week to see if they (the Chinese) make any moves on Harry Wu or in the human rights area," the Post reported.

The wife of detained Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu has asked Mrs. Clinton to boycott the conference because of Wu's arrest on espionage charges.

But many women's groups want her to go and carry the torch for women's issues, highlighting inequities of pay, education, health care, and political participation around the world.

"Ultimately, the decision will be made by the National Security Council and the State Department, but no decision has been made yet," the Post quoted Mrs. Clinton's spokesman, Neel Lattimore as saying.-Reuter