The judge's finding, a civil rather than criminal ruling, orders Clinton to pay Jones ``any reasonable expenses including attorneys' fees caused by his wilful failure to obey this court's discovery orders.''

US district judge Susan Webber Wright yesterday said she would delay enforcement for 30 days to give Clinton an opportunity to ask for a hearing or file a notice of appeal.

The ruling stemmed from Clinton's sworn statement in the Jones case that he didn't have a sexual relationship with Lewinsky, the former White House intern.

Wright said in her ruling ``the record demonstrates by clear and convincing evidence that the President responded to plaintiffs' questions by giving false, misleading and evasive answers that were designed to obstruct thejudicial process.''

``The court takes no pleasure whatsoever in holding this nation's president in contempt of court,'' the judge said.

Wright said Jones was entitled to information regarding any state or federal employee with whom the President had or proposed to have sexual relations.

In his deposition in the Jones case, Clinton said: ``I have never had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.'' After the President's DNA was found on a dress belonging to Lewinsky, he acknowledged an ``inappropriate intimate relationship'' with her before a federal grand jury last August 17 and again in a nationally televised address.