America ready for female president: Michelle Obama

She did not comment on prospects for Hillary Clinton getting the job.

WASHINGTON: United States (US) First Lady Michelle Obama said in remarks published on Friday that America was ready for a woman president, but would not comment on prospects for Hillary Clinton getting the job.

Michelle Obama's comments came in an interview with Parade magazine, excerpts of which were published on its website.

Asked if she thought that the country would see a female president in her lifetime, the wife of President Barack Obama said "Yes, I think the country is ready for it. It's just a question of who's the best person out there."

Hillary Clinton, a former US senator and secretary of state under Obama during his first term, has been vague on whether she will seek the nation's highest office.

She left her post as the top US diplomat in February and polls released with the Democratic nominating convention still three years off revealed she was ahead - both in the Democratic primaries and in the theoretical general election.

Of Clinton's prospects, Michelle Obama said, "She hasn't announced anything, so I'm certainly not going to get ahead of her."

She herself will not run for president, she added.

Michelle Obama also said that she thought her husband's time in office had helped ease racial prejudice in the United States.

"Children born in the last eight years will only know an African-American man being president of the United States. That changes the bar for all of our children, regardless of their race, their sexual orientation, their gender," she said.