Clinton sees new West Asia peace plan in two months

LONDON, Sep 20 (Reuters) Former US President Bill Clinton believes a new initiative to bring peace to the West Asia coul emerge in the next two months.

In an interview with the Financial Times, published today, Clinton said unrest in Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon had set the scene for ''some kind of positive movement to take place''. He stressed, however, that he had no insider knowledge on the situation.

Clinton told the British newspaper: ''All these bad news stories have created a sense that if we don't want further disintegration to occur then we had better come up with a strategy that goes forward in creating a new sense of order that enables everybody to live together.

''I'm not sure you won't see some positive things come out of the West Asia in the next 60 days.'' He said it was time to work out how to end the bloodshed, warning that otherwise the world was left with three choices.

''We can say: 'We know who our adversaries are and we can accelerate the confrontation, or we can kick the can down the road and hope the underlying realities change, or we can try to rearrange the pieces and players and try to put a puzzle together'.

''It seems to me the latter course is the best ... It wouldn't surprise me to see some fairly interesting things come out.'' Clinton has devoted much of his time since leaving the White House in January 2001 to the William J Clinton Foundation, which raises money to help pay for racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation as well as raising AIDS awareness and health security.

His annual conference -- the Clinton Global Initiative -- kicks off in New York today.

REUTERS DKS BST0702