TEGUCIGALPA - Education is key to development, former US President Bill Clinton said Monday.

"Not everything can be achieved in one fell swoop, but we have to focus on education, basic production and exports," said Clinton during a lecture at a leading Honduran university.

Invited as a guest speaker at Honduras' Universidad Tecnologica (Unitec) on the occasion of its 25th anniversary, Clinton arrived Monday to address a gathering of about 1,000 politicians, business leaders and other prominent personalities.

Clinton, who was US president from 1993 to 2001, stressed the importance of education to a country's development, in addition to other factors, such as strong community-based organizations.

Social inequality, said Clinton, is evident in the lack of access to health care, education and employment.

"Honduras is a good country, with young people who are ambitious and have dreams," said Clinton, adding the nation should make the most of its fertile land to "produce more and stop deforestation."

Clinton called on Honduran society to avoid focusing on the negative and concentrate on the positive to move forward.

Ruled for almost 20 years by a series of military governments, impoverished Honduras is today grappling with the fact that drug traffickers driven from Colombia by the US-led Plan Colombia have moved their operations to Central America.