President Clinton avoided making any comment on whether his wife, Senator Clinton, was considering an official withdrawal from the Democratic presidential primary during an hour-long speech he delivered this morning in Manhattan.

While discussing the future of corporate philanthropy at the Time Warner building, Mr. Clinton made only passing reference to his wife’s campaign. He briefly discussed consulting her about a particular type of green technology.

Yesterday, Mrs. Clinton’s rival for the Democratic nomination, Senator Obama, reached the threshold of 2,118 delegates needed to secure the nomination. Mrs. Clinton has yet to concede.

During his comments, Mr. Clinton implored the private sector to get more involved in philanthropy and rattled off examples — from the distribution of food aid in Africa, to development of electric cars, to maximizing energy efficiency in schools and universities, to harnessing wind energy — all of which he said were issues “ready made for corporate philanthropy.”

Since leaving the White House, Mr. Clinton has been running a charitable foundation, the Clinton Foundation, which addresses global issues including health security and economic empowerment.

“I don’t believe we could’ve done what we have done over the past six years without the ongoing support of corporations,” Mr. Clinton said.

Following his comments Mr. Clinton quickly left without taking questions.