Clinton, speaking to the United Nations Millennium Summit, also called for reform at the world body, as he defended the United Nations from criticism for its international interventions.

Addressing the largest gathering ever of world leaders, Clinton noted the presence in the UN General Assembly hall of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and said both men needed support and encouragement.

"To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and peace, to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years, let me say to all of you: 'They need your support now more than ever to take the hard risks for peace'," Clinton said.

"They have the chance to do it, but like all life's chances it is fleeting and about to pass," Clinton said in a departure from his prepared remarks.

"There is not a moment to lose," Clinton said, as he prepared to meet separately with both Arafat and Barak with just a week to go until a September 13th deadline that the Palestinians and Israelis have agreed as the deadline for any negotiation settlement and the day Arafat has set for declaring Palestinian statehood with or without a peace pact.

Clinton and his top aides have for weeks been attempting to bring Arafat and Barak together in a bid to pick up from where the Camp David peace summit failed in July after 15 days of intense talks.

Despite their efforts, little progress appears to have been made and senior U.S. officials on Tuesday discounted the possibility that Clinton's meetings with Arafat and Barak could produce resumption in top-level talks.

In direct measures that complemented Clinton's calls to the Millennium Summit, the president and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright were making the rounds of both the two parties and those with interest in the peace process.

Albright met with Barak late Tuesday and was to see Arafat while Clinton was with the Israeli Prime Minister on Wednesday.

In addition, Albright, on Wednesday, was to see Jordan's King Abdullah II, Saudi Prince Abdullah, as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Russia. Moscow is a co-sponsor of the peace process.

While highlighting the call for Middle East peace in his speech, Clinton also touched on many of the world's other trouble spots, such as East and West Timor, where three UN workers were killed earlier Wednesday, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Asia.

He also heaped scorn on Serbia and Iraq for repressive policies and singled out Myanmar for criticism over its treatment of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi who was recently embroiled in a standoff with authorities outside Rangoon.

"We face another test today in Burma (Myanmar), where a brave and popular leader Aung San Suu Kyi once again has been confined, with her supporters imprisoned and her country in distress in defiance of repeated UN resolutions," Clinton said.

To help bring an end to such difficulties, Clinton said the United Nations needed more support, citing the under-funded and ill equipped and trained UN force in Sierra Leone and East Timor.

"In both cases, the United Nations did not have the tools to finish the job," he said. "We must provide those tools: with peacekeepers that can be rapidly deployed with the right training and equipment, missions well-defined and well-led."

He also called for further UN reform, but defended the organization from those, many of whom are American critics, who challenge its relevance.

"Those in my country or elsewhere who believe we can do without the UN or impose our will upon it, misread history and misunderstand the future," he said.

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