Hillary aspires to high moral ground on eve of inauguration

ON THE eve of her husband's inauguration, the US First Lady, Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton, chose a popular French television programme to air her conservative views on teenage sex and divorce. By espousing "family values", the Clintons have recently tried to gain [support to the right of the Democratic Party.

In a broadcast which was prerecorded several days ago, Mrs Clinton last night told Anne Sinclair, the star presenter of TFI's 7 Sur 7 programme, that the "ideal would be that young people not have sex before they are 21". In the US, "loose attitudes and behaviours without responsibility" lead to "a very high rate of teenage pregnancy and "a very high rate of sexually transmitted diseases" she said.

Divorce is "too easy" in the US, Mrs Clinton said. "Parents don't try to stay together for their children." Another problem was that "they have ideals of marriage which are not realistic and therefore break up the marriage and the children suffer."

President Clinton is being sued for sexual harassment by Ms Paula Jones, who was a state employee when Mr Clinton was governor of Arkansas. The presidential couple has also been dogged by allegations of financial impropriety in the Whitewater real estate affair. These scandals "have no basis in evidence or fact", Mrs Clinton said.

The under representation of women in politics is widely condemned here, so Mrs Clinton was preaching to the choir when she said she hopes "there will be a woman president in the next 10 or 20 years". But Mrs Clinton - whose active role in the early years of the Clinton presidency was seized upon by critics - ruled out standing for president herself.