"He will probably take the chance over the next day or so to confer with some of his advisers and reach a final decision, I believe, by Sunday," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said.

Sunday is the deadline for countries to sign on to the treaty at U.N. headquarters in New York. After Sunday, countries must ratify the treaty before they can become party to it, a process that can take years or be stalled in parliaments.

The United Nations has been asked to remain open on Sunday for last-minute signatures, U.N. deputy spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said yesterday. Siewert said Clinton will make the decision at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, where the first family is spending the New Year's break.

The court would be the first permanent institution created specifically to try charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The United Nations has two war crimes courts in operation, one dealing with suspects from the Bosnia-Herzegovina civil war of the early 1990s, the other with people implicated in atrocities during tribal unrest in Rwanda in 1994.

The United States has withheld its endorsement of the permanent court treaty pending receipt of assurances demanded by the Pentagon and Congress that Americans would not be subject to politically motivated prosecution.

Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has mounted a campaign against the court. He has pledged to give top priority during the congressional session starting next week to passage of a bill that would bar U.S. cooperation with the court.

Additionally, he is trying to get Israel, which also is delaying its decision until the last minute, to reject the international court. In an opinion piece in an Israeli newspaper this month, Helms cautioned that if the court existed now, senior Israeli officials possibly could have been indicted for actions taken to put down a recent flare-up of anti-Israeli violence by Palestinians.

The United States and Israel were among the handful of countries that did not sign the statute creating the treaty in Rome in 1998.

Four countries were signing the treaty yesterday -- the Bahamas, Mongolia, Tanzania and Uzbekistan -- which brings the number to 136. Twenty-seven have ratified it, and 60 are needed before the treaty can enter into force.

Human rights groups pushed Clinton yesterday to sign the treaty. Human Rights Watch said "history will look harshly on President Clinton if he fails to sign," and Amnesty International said Clinton's signature "will demonstrate U.S. support for the rule of law and for equal justice for all."

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