The new mantra of Progressive Governance appears to have several virtues. It implies modernization and a focus on the future, key themes for Europe's new generation of pragmatic social-democratic leaders. At the same time, the word "progressive" carries echoes of more traditional Socialist goals like income redistribution and strong government.

"We should recognize what an enormous potential the Internet has for bridging economic, educational and social divides,'' Clinton said at the closing of a Berlin conference on retooling government for today's global information society.

Clinton noted that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien told the other leaders about how his government had connected remote Eskimo villages to the Internet.

"That has enormous health implications, enormous educational implications and, my guess is, enormous economic implications,'' Clinton said.

If schools in poor or remote spots had Internet-access, they'd also have the same access to knowledge as the rich world, he said.

"If you have a printer and a computer in a poor village, you don't have to be able to afford textbooks anymore,'' he said. "It's a far more efficient way for government to spread universal information.''

Clinton also suggested "a systematic effort to use e-commerce'' to market native arts and crafts from Latin America and Africa, which he said would "increase the income of poor people in villages dramatically.''

He also described something he saw on his recent trip to India. A new mother was able to get quality up-to-date information on how to care for her baby by going into her village's health office and calling up a Web page.

"We're going to keep more babies alive because of the Internet," he said.

"Those of us in the wealthier countries should be providing the money and the technical support for countries to do more of this,'' he said, "because it will move more people more quickly out of poverty I think than anything that's ever been out there, if you do it right.'

The Third Way approach to economic opportunity and security stresses technological innovation, competitive enterprise, and education rather than top- down redistribution or laissez faire. On questions of values, it embraces "tolerant traditionalism," honoring traditional moral and family values while resisting attempts to impose them on others. It favors an enabling rather than a bureaucratic government, expanding choices for citizens, using market means to achieve public ends and encouraging civic and community institutions to play a larger role in public life. The Third Way works to build inclusive, multiethnic societies based on common allegiance to democratic values.