At the request of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Chairman Arafat, President Clinton and Secretary Albright have decided to send Dennis Ross back to the region to help narrow the differences between the parties. Ambassador Ross will travel the beginning of next week, to spend a few days in the area, and then report back to the President and Secretary on the chances of the parties reaching agreement on the basis of the U.S. initiative.

I hope you will understand why I feel the need to comment on the fact that early this morning bombs exploded outside two of our American embassies in Africa. An explosion in Nairobi, Kenya killed and wounded scores of people. We have reports that several Americans are among the dead. Another explosion in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania also caused many casualties. At this time there are no reports that any Americans were killed in that attack, although our embassy appears to have been the target.

Secretary-General Aragona, Chairman Kobieracki, Ambassador Johnson, distinguished colleagues: I am very pleased to speak with you on behalf of the United States.

I have just finished a trip that gave me a chance to address some of the most pressing, practical challenges to democracy and stability in Europe. What I want to do today is to talk about some of these challenges, and then to discuss the role the OSCE can play in helping us meet them.

The IMF team currently in Moscow has reached agreement with the Government of Russia on a major strengthening of Russia's economic program which I intend to recommend to the IMF's Executive Board as the basis for an immediate and significant increase in the IMF's financial support for Russia. This support will help Russia face its difficult problems which have been exacerbated by the sharp decline in commodity prices, in particular oil.

The debate over the role of the IMF and the way it is fulfilling its task is a wholly legitimate debate. We need to be held accountable, we need our mission to be understood—all these things are understandable. This is part of the process in any democratic country.

Japan has announced new and potentially significant steps toward addressing its banking problems. We welcome this further recognition by Japan of the importance of strengthening its financial system.