Chelsea Clinton leaves for Sydney Olympics

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton gave his daughter Chelsea a lift to the airport in his limousine Tuesday and sent her off with a hug as she headed for Australia as a member of the official U.S. delegation to the Olympic games in Sydney.

It was the latest in a string of increasingly visible assignments for Chelsea, 20, taking a semester off from Stanford University where she is a senior. In Sydney she will be one of 10 members of the U.S. delegation led by Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala.

Over the summer, Chelsea accompanied her father on trips, including two last month that took her to Nigeria, Tanzania, Egypt and Colombia. Last week in New York, she helped her father host a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for world leaders attending the U.N. Millennium Summit.

After dropping off Chelsea, the president hung around Andrews Air Force Base to play 18 holes of golf with deputy chief of staff Steve Ricchetti and press secretary Joe Lockhart, who is leaving his job in a couple of weeks. "Lockhart's taking the day off," the president told reporters. "It should be a major story."

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