11:54am UK, Thursday June 17, 2004

Former US President Bill Clinton has spoken candidly about his affair with Monica Lewinsky ahead of the release of his tell-all book.  

During an interview with CBS News, Mr Clinton said there was no rational explanation for his adulterous behaviour.

180 bill clinton.jpg

Clinton: 'moral error'

He said: "I did something for the worst possible reason - just because I could."  

He added: "I think that's just about the most morally indefensible reason anybody could have for doing anything."  

The former president's memoirs, called My Life, are being published this weekend.  

He told "60 Minutes" that the affair is high on his list of regrets, calling it "a terrible moral error".  

Mr Clinton said his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and daughter, Chelsea, were able to overcome the effect of the revelation of the affair through counselling.  

He said his wife, now a Democratic senator for New York, needed time with him to decide whether she would stay married to him.  

"We'd take a day a week, and we did - a whole day a week every week for a year, maybe a little more - and did counselling," he said.  

"We did it together. We did it individually. We did family work."  

During the interview he also called his fight against impeachment a "badge of honour".  

"I didn't quit, I never thought of resigning and I stood up to it and beat it back," he said.  

Mr Clinton was reportedly paid a £5.5m advance for the book.