In a brief statement, the Rose firm denied that any of Mr. Foster's documents had been shredded.

"No files of Vincent Foster's have been destroyed," the statement said. "In the process of a lawyer changing offices, a box of old files containing internal Rose firm materials, such as copies of notes of firm committee meetings, was destroyed earlier this year."

The firm's lawyers declined to answer specific questions. What Rose Handled

Mr. Foster's files are potentially important to investigators. While he was at the Rose firm, he worked on a wide array of legal matters for the Clintons, including the sale of the Clintons' share of the Whitewater Development Company, a real estate venture in the Ozark Mountains. At the time of his suicide, Mr. Foster was working on various personal matters for the Clintons, including tax filings and the creation of the family's blind trust.

Investigators have sought clues to the circumstances of Mr. Foster's death, as well as the Clintons' finances, in everything from Mr. Foster's internal memos and telephone logs to his personal diary and even some cryptic scribblings discovered among his White House papers.

The courier testified that he had seen no references to Whitewater in the papers he shredded.

The timing of the shredding is unclear. By the courier's account to the grand jury, he destroyed the papers about the time that Robert B. Fiske Jr., the independent counsel, was appointed on Jan. 20.

At the news conference called that day to announce his appointment, Mr. Fiske said he would investigate the circumstances of Mr. Foster's suicide and accusations that money had been improperly diverted from the Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan Association in Arkansas to Mr. Clinton's business interests or his 1984 gubernatorial campaign. The savings institution failed in 1989, and its assets and accounts were taken over by the Government.