Hillary's anger lights up after rape claims.(National)

First Lady Hillary Clinton threw an antique lamp at her husband after watching a TV interview in which a woman claimed the President had raped her.

US Internet journalist Mr Matt Drudge - who first revealed the Monica Lewinsky affair - claimed yesterday the first family's disharmony came during their recent skiing holiday in Utah.

He said Mrs Clinton had only heard of the Juanita Broaddrick interview but then a staff member gave her a video tape to watch at her leisure.

According to an insider, Mrs Clinton viewed the video late in the evening after the President and daughter Chelsea had gone to sleep.

"She was so enraged at what she saw that she stormed into President Clinton's bedroom, picked up an antique lantern and threw it at her sleeping husband," reported Mr Drudge on his Internet site yesterday.

A screaming match ensued, Chelsea overheard the argument and broke down crying and later told her father that she had wished he was not there. The holiday was cut short, according to Mr Drudge.

The White House last week claimed the holiday was shortened because the President and Mrs Clinton wanted to return to Washington.

But then Mrs Clinton failed to go on a trip to Central America with the President leading to reports of a break-up.

One source claimed Mrs Clinton said she did not want to be in the same room as her husband, never mind the same bed.

But the President and his spokesman said Mrs Clinton did not travel with her husband because she had a bad back.

Mrs Clinton is scheduled to attend four public events with the President this week.

The First Lady is considering running for the Senate in New York and plans a month of "introspection" before announcing her decision.

New York Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer said yesterday: "She's going to take a good month, at least, to do that and look into herself.

"She has to look deeply into her soul and determine whether she really wants to be senator."

Mrs Clinton is eyeing a run for the seat being vacated in the year 2000 by retiring Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. She could face New York's feisty Republican Mayor Rudi Giuliani, who also is looking at the race.

Meanwhile, the Clintons put on a show of harmony as they walked arm-in-arm into a Washington church on Sunday to hear a sermon on true love.

It was their first appearance together since the reports of a marital rift in the White House.

The President and Mrs Clinton appeared at Foundry United Methodist Church hours after Mr Clinton returned alone from Hope, Arkansas, where his boyhood home was dedicated during a sparsely attended ceremony.

The First Lady and Chelsea, who is at Stanford University, did not attend the dedication.

Americans rank President Clinton number one among post-war presidents on foreign policy success, up from eighth place in the middle of his first term, according to a poll released yesterday.

He soared past Presidents Kennedy, Nixon, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Bush and Carter, ranked in that order in 1994, to top the poll of presidents with "very successful" foreign policy performance since the Second World War. Only Presidents Ford and Johnson had trailed Clinton in the 1994 poll.

The survey, conducted every four years by Gallup for the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, shows support for a strong defence and for efforts to fight terrorism and prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Finola Lynch/Page 13