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Mansoor Ijaz, a 35-year-old businessman, was precisely the kind of political activist the White House was seeking last year to help finance President Clinton's reelection campaign.

Wealthy and well-connected, Ijaz was more than willing to pitch in. By Election Day in November, he had raised $525,000 for the Democratic cause, including $250,000 from his personal funds and $200,000 donated by guests at a fund-raising reception for Vice President Gore at Ijaz's New York penthouse in September, according to Federal Election Commission records, White House documents and Ijaz.

Now Ijaz is trying to reap what he has sown. Having earned access to the Clinton administration through his fund-raising prowess, Ijaz has met with a succession of senior officials in the White House, State Department and Congress to further his business interests through changes in U.S. policy toward Islamic countries, particularly Sudan, a government long accused of sanctioning international terrorism. Much of the 1996 campaign fund-raising controversy has centered on questions about big donors currying influence and gaining access to administration officials. Ijaz's case illustrates the blurring of lines between fund-raising and the pursuit of personal political and financial agendas by those whose donations helped finance Clinton's reelection.

Since last summer, Ijaz has worked relentlessly to broker a reconciliation between the United States and Sudan, an emerging African oil producer the Clinton administration has sought to isolate because of Khartoum's alleged support for international terrorism.

In a half-dozen trips to Khartoum since July, Ijaz repeatedly has met with Sudan's president, Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Bashir, and the country's militant Islamic leader, Hassan Turabi, advising them on how to soften the Clinton administration's position, according to Sudanese officials, Ijaz and U.S. officials familiar with his activities.

During that period, Ijaz also met with senior White House and State Department officials—including Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, now national security adviser—to urge a policy toward Sudan of "constructive engagement," which would include enlisting Turabi's help in curbing international terrorists. A White House spokesman confirmed Berger's meeting with Ijaz last August and said the businessman had provided helpful "insight."

Ijaz, who displays photographs in his New York office of himself with Clinton and Gore, acknowledged during six hours of interviews the leverage his fund-raising provided in gaining "political prominence" in Washington for the advancement of his causes.

"Everybody knows who I am," he said, adding, "Donations give you access once or twice. But in order to be meaningful in the policy process, you have to have something important to say, and information."

Ijaz also acknowledged his commercial interests in effecting a reconciliation between the United States and Sudan. As chairman of Crescent Investment Management, a New York firm that he said handles a $ 2.7 billion investment portfolio—much of it on behalf of Middle East governments—Ijaz said he is particularly interested in new oil field development. Sudan, with moderate reserves estimated at 3.5 billion barrels, is expected to become a petroleum exporter soon and Ijaz said he hopes to manage some of Khartoum's foreign investment of oil profits.

Sudan's fortunes depend in some measure on the extent to which the United States relents in squeezing the country economically, oil industry analysts said. Sudan has been on the U.S. government's list of terror-supporting nations since 1993, and Washington accused Khartoum of aiding Islamic militants who tried to kill Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in June 1995. The U.N. Security Council has imposed diplomatic sanctions on Sudan, while Washington has pressed the United Nations for additional economic penalties.

Ijaz said his Democratic Party "political credentials" also have been very helpful in winning access to political leaders in other countries where he has current or prospective business dealings. He cited Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Israel and various Persian Gulf states as examples, adding, "Their leaders wouldn't give you the time of day if you're not politically prominent."

Ijaz, whose father was a prominent nuclear physicist who immigrated to the United States from Pakistan in 1960, was born in Florida and educated at the University of Virginia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to his resume. He began pressing his case for better relations with Khartoum after Congress last spring banned all financial transactions between U.S. companies and Sudan as a punitive measure. Ijaz's first trip to Khartoum, he said, came in July as State and Treasury Department officials contemplated how to put the ban into effect.

When the regulations were published in late August, the administration effectively gutted the prohibition by allowing a broad range of financial transactions by U.S. businesses dealing with Sudan. That loose interpretation remains in effect despite sharp protests from some members of Congress.

Ijaz's personal donations in the last campaign included contributions to Democratic Senate and House candidates as well as to the Democratic National Committee. The reception for Gore on Sept. 16 drew 25 guests who contributed a minimum of $5,000 each, according to White House documents. Ijaz said he has met the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton on a dozen occasions.

Whether Ijaz's activities have had any influence on U.S. policy toward Sudan remains unclear. "We have not found his analysis on Sudan compelling in any way," said David Johnson, a White House spokesman, who added that Ijaz "had provided a valuable perspective."

Ijaz is not registered with the Justice Department as a lobbyist for Sudan and said he has received no compensation from the Khartoum regime. He acknowledged that the congressional ban, as originally devised, would have impinged on his business aspirations in Sudan. But his larger ambition, he said, is to parlay his Democratic connections into a powerful Muslim American lobby with influence on U.S. foreign policy.

Besides his session with Berger, Ijaz's U.S. government contacts in recent months have included meetings with Susan E. Rice, special assistant to the president for African affairs; senior officials in the State Department's African affairs office; and several senior members of Congress, including Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.), ranking minority member on the House International Relations Committee, according to government sources. Ijaz also has had meetings with FBI and U.S. intelligence officials, according to a source familiar with his activities.

Earlier this month, Ijaz returned from another trip to Khartoum with a letter from Bashir to Hamilton. Bashir offered in the letter to allow FBI agents unrestricted access in Sudan to determine whether the government supports international terrorists, according to a Sudanese official. Hamilton, who forwarded the letter to the State Department, said in an interview that he met with Ijaz three or four times in recent months and found him "a very bright, energetic guy" with "a lot of contacts in the Sudan."

Ijaz argues that his proposal for better relations with oil-wealthy Islamic nations would serve U.S. interests because they control 72 percent of the world's known reserves. He also has promulgated his views in several opinion pieces published earlier this year in the Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.

"I am of the view that Doctor Turabi has access to every single major fringe radical group on the face of the planet," Ijaz said. "Let's use him to be our bridge to all of these fringe radical groups."

As a precedent, Ijaz cited Turabi's role as a mediator between France and Algerian Islamic militants responsible for bombings in Paris in 1995. He also noted Sudan's cooperation in the 1994 extradition to France of the international terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as "Carlos the Jackal," who had been living for years in Khartoum.

A month after Ijaz first visited Sudan last July, Turabi sent Clinton a letter mentioning that he had met the Pakistani American and saying he strongly supported Ijaz's proposal for "constructive engagement on all fronts."

A senior U.S. official said the administration has not replied to Turabi's letter and regards Sudanese steps toward reconciliation as "cosmetic."

"Actions," the official added, "speak louder than words."

Staff researcher Nathan Abse contributed to this report.

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