"I don't want to be in the same room with him,
let alone the same bed," Mrs. Clinton was
quoted as saying, according to the Fox News
Channel report, which cited unnamed sources
close to the First Family.

The report adds Mrs. Clinton decided to skip
the four-nation goodwill trip because she felt
she couldn't get a separate hotel room from
her husband without people finding out.

But the First Lady's spokeswoman, Marsha
Berry, said the report is "not true," adding Mrs.
Clinton is reluctantly skipping the trip because
of a back injury aggravated by skiing.

"She basically has been told she should stay
off her feet because she hurt herself," Berry
said. "She could not have done this trip."

Berry declined to discuss the Clintons'
sleeping arrangements at the White House or
the state of their marriage.

"It's not our business," she said.

At times in recent months the First Lady has
seemed to give her husband the big chill in
public and he has repeatedly said the worst
thing about Sexgate is the pain it continues to
cause his family.

The state of the Clintons' marriage has
sparked speculation right from his 1992
campaign and Gennifer Flowers' claim of a
longtime affair, up through the past year of the
Sexgate scandal.

The Fox News report says the big blowup
between the Clintons came during their Utah
skiing vacation a few weeks ago with daughter
Chelsea - a trip from which they abruptly
returned a day early.

The two had a shouting match that ended with
Hillary Clinton storming out of the room and
saying she wanted her bags, it added.

The report quotes an unnamed family friend as
saying the Clintons barely speak in private.

"They have nothing to talk about any more.
The only thing they have in common is
Chelsea," the source says.

The Clintons returned to Washington from the
ski trip the same day Chelsea went back to
school at Stanford University - instead of
staying an extra day as planned at the posh
estate of movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Their early return was so hasty that the White
House was unable to arrange a press charter
to bring back reporters traveling with Clinton.

At the time, White House spokesmen insisted
the Clintons simply wanted to return early to
get a good night's sleep because both had
heavy schedules.

Now the First Lady's office says the early
return was prompted by Mrs. Clinton's
aggravating an old back injury while skiing.

During the ski trip, the president and his wife
were not seen together in public.

The next week, Mrs. Clinton spent two days in
New York on a quasi-campaign trip, teasing
crowds with the speculation that she may run
for a New York Senate seat in 2000.

There was no sign during those two busy days
in the Big Apple that she was physically
uncomfortable.

Last Saturday, her spokeswoman said Mrs. Clinton was
planning to go on to the Central Clinton was planning to go on the Central America
trip - then Sunday her office said
she'd be staying home because of her back injury.

The trip comes amid Monica Mania, with
Monica Lewinsky all over TV and signing
books and talking about her affair with Clinton,
including her hopes that he would leave his wife.

It also comes in the wake of continuing
questions about charges by Juanita
Broaddrick that Clinton sexually assaulted her
in 1978.

-- Deborah Orin - 3/10/99