VANCOUVER (Canada), Apr 3; US President Bill Clinton arrived here today for a summit with Russian President Boris Yeltsin at which he was to announce a new aid plan underpinning the Russian economy, report AFP, AP.

Clinton travelled the short distance from Portland, Oregon arriving two hours after Yeltsin who had a marathon flight from Moscow via the Russian Far East. Both were met by Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.

Clinton and Yeltsin were to have a first round of talks Saturday afternoon and a second on Sunday.

Clinton, heading Saturday to his first summit with Yeltsin, vowed to mobilise the world’ to support reforms In

Russia.

Yeltsin arrived first to a rain-soaked ceremony.

The Russian President stood at attention alone in a downpour, waving off an offer of an umbrella, as a military band played the national anthems of Russia and Canada.

Clinton said an International effort, like the one mounted to confront Iraq in the Gulf War, is needed to help Russia.

"I want America to act but America cannot and should not act alone," Clinton said In h(s weekly radio address. The address was broadcast Saturday but taped Friday night in Portland, Ore. where Clinton attended a forest conference.

"Just as we mobilized the world on behalf of war in the Gulf, we must now mobilize

the world on behalf of peace and reform in Russia,” Clinton said in his radio address.

He noted that 20,000 nuclear warheads remain in Russia.

Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who has offered a dlrs 160 million package of Canadian aid to Russia, greeted Yeltsin at the airport. Neither one had remarks at the arrival ceremony.

After lunch Saturday with Mulroney, Clinton and Yeltsin planned a 90-m1nute meeting with only note-takers present, followed by a working dinner and another session with aides and advisers on Sunday.

Despite the dreary weather, both sides were upbeat about what US officials are characterizing as the first full-

fledged post-Cold War summit.

Restoring the Russian economy is a matter of political survival for Yeltsin, while for Clinton it's a political hardsell. Both men seek to overcome public skepticism at home with this weekend's

Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who arrived at this western Canadian seaport Friday evening, said, 'We want to see the new Russia survive."

A poll of 1,000 Americans Interviewed in a March 29-31 telephone survey showed that 80 per cent opposed increasing aid to Russia and 55 per cent don't believe such aid will significantly help the former communist nation move toward a free-market economy and democracy.