Mr. Clinton commented in response to yet another question about his affair with Ms. Lewinsky, at an afternoon news conference with Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema of Italy.

The news conference largely dwelt on the accident in Italy last year in which a Marine Corps plane on a training mission severed ski gondola cables, killing 20 people. But in the third question to Mr. Clinton, Laurence McQuillan, a White House correspondent for Reuters, asked the President whether he had any thoughts on the Lewinsky matter that ''perhaps might bring closure to this.''

The President said: ''I think I can only ----. One of the things I've learned, that I've had to relearn all over again in this last four-year episode, is that all I can control in life is what I do and what I say. And if I do and say the right things, then that's the thing that's best for me and my family and for the American people. And that's what I'm concentrating on doing.''

He said that the American people were ''virtually screaming'' at leaders in Washington to return to the nation's business and that he would try to heed their wishes.

''But, you know,'' he added, returning to his views on the Lewinsky affair, ''this was a pretty tough thing for everybody involved, and I wish her well. I hope it works out all right for her.''