NEW YORK (REUTERS) - United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton left New York-Presbyterian hospital on Wednesday and was driven away with her husband, Bill, and daughter, Chelsea, and an aide, a Reuters photographer witnessed.

It was unclear where she was going or whether she had been discharged from the hospital, where she had been admitted for treatment of a blood clot behind her right ear. A hospital spokesman directed all questions about Mrs Clinton, 65, to the State Department, which had no immediate comment.

Earlier on Wednesday, a State Department spokesman said Mrs Clinton, who had not been seen in public since Dec 7, had been talking with her staff by telephone and receiving memos. Mrs Clinton also spoke to two foreign officials - the United Nations envoy on Syria and the prime minister of Qatar - on Saturday, the day before the State Department disclosed the blood clot and her stay at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

"She's been quite active on the phone with staff and taking paper, etc," State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said at the department's daily briefing.

The State Department announced on Sunday that Mrs Clinton was in a New York hospital for treatment of a blood clot that stemmed from a concussion she suffered in mid-December. The concussion was itself the result of an earlier illness, described by the State Department as a stomach virus she had picked up during a trip to Europe that led to dehydration and a
fainting spell after she returned to the US.

In a statement released by the State Department on Monday, Mrs Clinton's doctors said they were confident that she would make a full recovery and that she would be released from the hospital once the correct dosage of blood thinners had been determined.