WASHINGTON (AP) - Twelve of 14 jailed Puerto Rican nationalists
                   agreed Tuesday to a politically sensitive clemency deal offered by
                   President Clinton but opposed by his wife, prospective Senate candidate
                   Hillary Rodham Clinton.

                   The Puerto Ricans, jailed on weapons and sedition convictions, are
                   members of pro-independence guerrilla groups that carried out a wave of
                   bombings in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

                   The nearly month-old offer is conditioned on statements from each
                   independence activist pledging not to engage in violence if released. The
                   activists had until Friday to take or leave the deal.

                   Two imprisoned activists are expected to reject the clemency offer, the
                   White House said. Two others who are not in jail have another week to
                   respond. If they agree to the White House terms, their fines will be
                   reduced.

                   ''The president expects all those who accept the conditional clemency
                   grant to abide fully by its terms, including refraining from the use or
                   advocacy of the use of violence for any purpose and obeying all the
                   statutory conditions of parole,'' White House press secretary Joe Lockhart
                   said in a statement.

                   At a news conference in San Juan, activist leader Luis Nieves Falcon
                   confirmed that 11 members of the Armed Forces of National Liberation
                   and one leader of the Macheteros separatist group had accepted the
                   three-week-old offer even though it required them to formally renounce
                   violence and agree not to associate with felons.

                   But two of those who accepted Clinton's clemency offer defended their
                   past actions Tuesday in prison interviews with KGO-TV in San Francisco.

                   ''If your country is a colony, be it a declared war or undeclared war, you
                   have the right to pick up arms and that is what I chose to do,'' said Dylcia
                   Pagan, serving a 55-year sentence in the federal prison at Dublin, Calif.

                   Ida Luz ''Lucy'' Rodriguez, who is serving a 75-year sentence at the same
                   prison about 30 miles east of San Francisco, said members of the Armed
                   Forces of National Liberation considered themselves patriots, not
                   terrorists.

                   ''I guess if George Washington would have lost to the English, history
                   would have treated him as a terrorist,'' she said.

                   Zenaida Lopez, whose brother, Oscar Lopez Rivera, is serving a 55-year
                   sentence and is one of the two prisoners who didn't sign the agreement,
                   said: ''He feels that renouncing violence, accepting what they are offering,
                   is like a prison without a prison.''

                   The Armed Forces of National Liberation, known by its Spanish initials
                   FALN, carried out more than 100 bombings in the United States between
                   1974 and 1983. The bombings killed six and wounded dozens. The
                   imprisoned nationalists were not convicted in any of the bombings but
                   were found guilty of seditious conspiracy and possession of weapons and
                   explosives.

                   The clemency offer has divided the first family and brought criticism from
                   both Republicans and Democrats.

                   ''I think there have been many who have sought to inject politics, and many
                   who have thought to inject a motive here, and all I can say is that they're
                   wrong,'' Lockhart said at his daily briefing for reporters.

                   Hillary Clinton, a potential candidate for a Senate seat from New York,
                   has urged the president to rescind the proposal. ''It's been three weeks
                   and their silence speaks volumes,'' the first lady said over the weekend.

                   Republican critics and some law enforcement officials asserted the
                   president's clemency offer was originally designed to help his wife win
                   votes among New York's 1.3 million Puerto Ricans.

                   Lockhart sidestepped a question about whether White House strategy had
                   backfired, and noted that a clemency deal was under discussion long
                   before Mrs. Clinton began considering the 2000 Senate race.

                   Some Democrats, including the senator Mrs. Clinton would replace,
                   Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, have called the clemency deal a bad
                   idea. Now that Mrs. Clinton has spoken out, Democrats who cheered the
                   clemency deal are calling her a turncoat.

                   ''I am disappointed. I am angry,'' said Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said.
                   ''And frankly, I view her and her candidacy differently after reading reports
                   of her comments and actions. I would be a hypocrite if I did not.''

                   Howard Wolfson, spokesman for Mrs. Clinton's exploratory campaign,
                   said the first lady ''understands that her friends feel very strongly about this
                   issue, but she stands by her statement.''

                   Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., complained that the attention paid to
                   Mrs. Clinton's statement distracted attention from serious discussion of the
                   prisoners' cases and their cause.

                   ''She is on a listening tour, isn't she?'' Velazquez asked at a Manhattan
                   news conference. ''I would advise her strongly to continue, and to come to
                   our community to see what the issues are.''

                   Mrs. Clinton called a summer of campaign-style visits to New York cities
                   and towns a listening tour.

                   Velazquez said she got a call from the White House attempting to further
                   explain Mrs. Clinton's position. Velazquez was asked if the call was an
                   attempt to apologize, explain or clarify Mrs. Clinton's statement.

                   ''All of the above,'' she replied.

                    The prisoners
                            All were convicted of seditious conspiracy and related charges unless otherwise noted:
                            Edwin Cortes, 35 years
                            Elizam Escobar, 60 years
                            Ricardo Jimenez, 90 years
                            Adolfo Matos, 70 years
                            Dylcia Pagan, 55 years
                            Alberto Rodriguez, 35 years
                            Alicia Rodriguez, 55 years
                            Ida Luz Rodriguez, 75 years
                            Luis Rosa, 75 years
                            Juan Segarra Palmer, 55 years for conspiracy, bank robbery and transportation of stolen money
                            Alejandrina Torres, 35 years
                            Carmen Valentin, 90 years

                            Prisoners who didn't accept clemency offer:
                            Oscar Lopez Rivera, 55 years
                            Carlos Alberto Torres, 70 years