HILLARY Clinton's memoirs went on sale on Monday amid a blitz of publicity and hype that made it seem as though the tumultuous years of sex and scandal in the Clinton White House were only yesterday.

　　The first-lady-turned-senator signed copies of "Living History" amid a throng of media and onlookers at a Manhattan store, where fans lined up around the block waiting to meet her.

　　"It's history, and maybe she'll be the first woman president," said Ruth Cahn, a retired librarian from New York. "We hope so," chimed in her friend Blanche Siegel. "So far we can't think of anybody who's even a close second."

　　Clinton has given no sign she will run for the presidency in 2004, but many pundits say she is a possible candidate in 2008. She occupied the White House with President Bill Clinton from 1993-2001.

　　Fifty-eight per cent of New York voters said in a recent poll they don't want her to run for president.

　　Across the street from the store, two protesters held up signs reading "Hillary Knew," taking issue with when Clinton says she learned of Bill Clinton's affair with intern Monica Lewinsky which ultimately led to his impeachment late in 1998.

　　"She's rewriting history," said protester Raoul Deming, from Takoma Park, Maryland.

　　In the book, Clinton says she believed her husband's denial of the affair until he confessed to her in August 1998, two days before he testified to a grand jury in the case but months after the media began running reports of the affair.

　　Sex scandal

　　Clinton supporter Barbara Liss said she understood how Clinton could have been deceived.

　　"My ex-husband did the same thing to me, and I went into total denial," she said. "Thirteen women later, in my marriage, and I still didn't want to believe it."

　　Inside, clad in a yellow suit and pearls, Clinton greeted the media pack that has dogged her since the White House sex scandal, President Clinton's impeachment and her US senate run.

　　Asked as always if she planned to run for president, Clinton as always skirted the question. "I have a wonderful job that I am proud to have," she said, "That's the job I have and I want to continue doing it."

　　The book marks the first time she has approached any semblance of openness about her feelings toward her husband, his infidelities and her marriage. Still, she fell well short of wearing her heart on her sleeve.

　　"These were obviously personal and private moments that unfortunately were made public for partisan political purposes," she said.

　　"As far as the ongoing politics of personal destruction that was so much a part of our country's life and certainly our time in the White House, I had to address what was public in my memoir and tried to do so in a way that might provide some insight and information."

　　Such was the hype that bookstores in New York and in the Washington area opened their doors one minute after midnight on Monday morning to sell the book.

　　Clinton did her best to appear composed as reporters peppered her with intensely personal questions. But some topics remained taboo. One reporter asked if she ever had to apologize to her husband for an affair, to which Clinton tersely replied, "That question doesn't deserve an answer."

　　Having paid Clinton US million, publisher Simon & Schuster is clearly hoping for a best-seller. "Living History" is already No. 2 on popular online booksellers.

　　Fund-raising tool

　　Whether the first-term senator, one of the most polarizing figures in US politics, is solely interested in selling books or is setting herself up for bigger things like a presidential run is an open question.

　　Democrats say no one in the party can rally the faithful the way Clinton can. Republicans already are using her heightened profile as a fund-raising tool.

　　And while Clinton has ruled out a 2004 White House bid, the book has focused attention on her political future at the same time nine Democrats are trying to gear up their own presidential campaigns against US President George W. Bush.

　　"For Democrats, she is the closest thing we have to a celebrity," said New York political consultant Hank Scheinkopf. "She is the politician with the greatest ability to pull together a coalition for the future."

　　Clinton, who has not ruled out a White House bid in 2008 or later, has earned a reputation in the Senate as a coalition builder on important but low-profile issues like state aid and child care.

　　Prospective candidate

　　But Clinton, who earned an US million advance for the book, also acts like a prospective candidate for higher office.

　　She is one of the party's biggest fund raisers and gave US,000 to congressional campaigns in the 2002 election cycle. Only Two House Republicans, Dennis Hastert of Illinois and Tom Delay of Texas, and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California gave more, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics.

　　Her recent appointment to run the Senate Democratic Steering Committee gives her a platform to help set the party's political agenda.

　　She also electrified a meeting of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council last summer with an attack on Bush, overshadowing several prospective 2004 candidates who addressed the same meeting.

　　Clinton said the book would not steal the spotlight from the Democratic field. "We've got very capable, very effective candidates out there," she told reporters on Capitol Hill, adding the book was in the tradition of former first ladies who wrote about the White House.

　　Republicans are anxious to capitalize on her emergence.

　　"If Republican don't take immediate steps to counter her, Senator Hillary Clinton will continue to rise unimpeded to the very pinnacle of power in Washington," warned a recent Republican Senate campaign committee fund-raising letter.

　　"There is a potential for us to tap into the polarization she raises across the country," said committee spokesman Dan Allen, who would not rule out more Clinton-based appeals.