Prostitute's son: President my dad

WASHINGTON - The black teenage son of an Arkansas prostitute is claiming to be the son of United States President Bill Clinton, according to newspapers and a US Internet site called the Drudge Report.

The boy, Danny Williams, aged 13, is having DNA tests to determine whether the beleaguered President is his father.

The boy's mother, Bobbie Ann, has long claimed to have had paid sex with Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas, but many US newspapers have avoided the story of the paternity of her son.

Claims that the boy has taken a DNA test were reported on the Internet by gossip columnist Matt Drudge as well as in the tabloid newspapers the Star and the New York Post.

The paternity claim has parallels with the Joe Klein novel Primary Colors, whose main character is based on Clinton and in which an illegitimate black child appears.

According to Drudge, the Star persuaded the boy to supply a DNA sample, but the results of a comparison with Clinton's DNA are not yet known.

During a congressional inquiry, Clinton provided DNA samples which were used to prove that it was his semen on Monica Lewinsky's dress.

It was not clear how the Star intended comparing the two DNAs, although one suggestion was that the boy's could be compared with the detailed genetic information about Clinton contained in the report by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr, who investigated the Lewinsky case.

Bobbie Ann Williams has passed a lie-detector test on her allegations that she had sex with Clinton several times.

The White House dismissed the latest claims. Press secretary Joe Lockhart said they were merely gossip emanating from a supermarket tabloid.- NZPA