9-23-01, NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Saturday his administration authorized the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of Islamic militant Osama bin Laden but lacked sufficient information to carry it out.

Government sources have said the Clinton administration in 1998 gave the CIA approval to conduct covert operations targeting bin Laden, who Washington believes masterminded the bombings that year of two U.S. embassies in East Africa.

Bin Laden is also believed to be behind the Sept. 11 attacks against New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Virginia that left more than 6,800 dead or missing.

``At the time we did everything we can do,'' Clinton said of the 1998 operations.

``I authorized the arrest and, if necessary, the killing of Osama bin Laden and we actually made contact with a group in Afghanistan to do it,'' he told reporters in New York following a briefing by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

``We also trained commandos for a possible ground action but we did not have the necessary intelligence to do it in the way we would have had to do it.''

Clinton said any action against Bin Laden now could have greater chances of success given the broader international support for U.S. action following the aerial suicide attacks.

``Now we have support from people who would not have supported us then, and they give us many more tactical options than were available then,'' he said. ``Can this big international movement be defeated? Absolutely it can.''

Among those who have pledged support to the United States in tracking down bin Laden is Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.