Lewinsky, who received Britain's largest-ever media payout for an exclusive interview, said financial problems and the threat of jail had driven her to expose her side of the liaison with the US president.

Channel 4 television paid her 400,000 pounds (716,000 dollars, 596,000 euros) -- in 1999 for the interview.

"I had been in legal jeopardy. I hadn't worked for a year, I needed to put my life back together and I needed to pay those bills," Lewinsky said.

When asked if she was now financially comfortable, Lewinsky, now 30 and a handbag designer, said: "No, I'm not."

She sent a barb sideways to Loos, her co-panelist in the debate hosted by the Edinburgh Television Festival.

Loos, a well-off 26-year-old who has alleged to have had sex with David Beckham while serving as his personal assistant, made 800,000 pounds from selling her story, including 120,000 pounds for a Sky One television interview, according to her publicist Max Clifford.

Lewinsky said she knew little about the reputed tryst between the Real Madrid star and Loos, which reportedly took place while wife Victoria Beckham, the former Spice Girl, was still in Britain.

But, added Lewinsky: "I don't mean any disrespect to Rebecca, but my situation was different. I was accosted by the FBI and threatened with jail. It was similar in that it was a relationship with somebody who was taken."

Loos' publicist Clifford, another panelist, clashed with Lewinsky during the debate. "Did the money help you get off your knees and move on?" he asked her at one point.

Lewinsky, clearly angry, shot back: "Well, I'm sitting on a chair, Max, so what do you think?"

While Lewinsky said she had hired a publicist "basically to turn down (media) requests", Loos is raking in publicity and says she is hoping to become a television personality.

Later this year the former personal assistant will appear on "The Farm", a reality show where minor celebrities mess around in the muck and grapple with chores like milking cows and cleaning stables. US heiress and socialite Paris Hilton stars on the US equivalent of the show, "The Simple Life".

But Loos said her tell-all media stunts were aimed at clearing her name, not cleaning up financially.

"I was reading so much in the papers that had nothing to do with me and I wanted people to know me for who I am," she told the audience in Edinburgh.

"I was being called a lesbian predator and a gold-digger. Anyone would want to step forward and say, 'Hang on, that's not me.'"