Dr Nariman Abdel Kader

Doha: Former US President Bill Clinton remains popular with Arabs despite not being in power any more.

An Egyptian woman lawyer, who had a chance meeting with Clinton at the Middle East Economic Summit here on Monday, says a photograph taken with her and the former US president is the biggest treasure of her life.

Dr Nariman Abdel Kader was here to attend the conference at the invitation of Qatar's foreign ministry.

"I am in Doha for the first time and it is here that I met Clinton. I had not even imagined that I would meet him and even talk to him," an awed Nariman told this newspaper yesterday.

"A photographer was taking pictures of Clinton and I was standing nearby. The president saw me and asked me to come closer and pose along. I was so excited. I told him I was a lawyer too, and he laughed and shook hands me," she said.

Nariman is practising law in Cairo for more than 30 years now. She specialises in arbitration and said she would get the photographs taken with Clinton framed up and put them in her office for everyone to see.

"I have photographs taken with Kofi Annan and the president of Portugal but have never been as excited as I am now after having met Clinton. We like him. All Arabs like him. But I hate George Bush and all Arabs hate him," she said.