DENVER, June 20: ``No,'' the President said simply when asked on Thursday if he would abide by his denomination's sanction against Walt Disney Co, the entertainment powerhouse. A reporter tossed the question to Bill Clinton as he headed into a one-on-one meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto at the Summit of Eight conference here.

The Southern Baptist Convention voted on Wednesday to boycott Disney and all of its subsidiaries including television stations ABC, ESPN, A and E and Lifetime because of objections to the company's gay-friendly workplace policies and its marketing of films containing violent and sexual matters.

The Southern Baptists formally urged all 15 million members of the protestant denomination to banish Disney from their lives. But Clinton, who has been a lifelong Southern Baptist, has made clear in the past that he does not agree with the convention's stance on gay rights or abortion.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.