BILL Clinton will be re-living White House luxury and splendour when he visits Gwent this weekend.

The former US president will be taking over one of the Celtic Manor Resort's two Presidential Suites at £1,100 a night plus VAT when he stays at the Newport hotel.

Mr Clinton will spend Saturday night at the top-drawer establishment after delivering the opening lecture - sold out at £100 a ticket - at the Hay Festival forty miles away.

Other famous Celtic Manor visitors have included the Prince of Wales, Tony Blair, Shirley Bassey and Ryan Giggs.

Rumours have been circulating that Mr Clinton would choose the hotel for his visit.

The Presidential Suite is usually reserved for top-ranking company bosses when their firms are holding a corporate 'bash' there.

Mr Clinton will enjoy: Exclusive artwork and decoration for the man of taste;

A baby grand piano for running through his saxophone chord changes;

A private dining-room for eating the hotel's award-winning food; A study for reading up on Gwent and its history;

A terrace with a view of the hotel parkland to remind him of home;

A luxury bathroom with steam shower for refreshing that famously athletic figure.

The Celtic Manor is the AA Welsh Hotel of the Year, enjoys RAC, Wales Tourist Board and AA five-star status and the RAC Blue Ribbon award. It is home to the Wales Open golf tournament and hopes to host the 2009 Ryder Cup.

A spokesman said: "The Celtic Manor is quite simply one of the best hotels in the world and this is why the president's party was attracted to it."

The hotel borders 23,000 acres of unspoiled valleys and woodlands in the Usk vale.

Mr Clinton will deliver the BBC Wales World Lecture on Conflict Resolution.

He is recognised as the one of the most able US presidents of the modern era in his grasp of ideas and political briefs.