Chelsea Clinton gives birth to baby girl

Chelsea Clinton stands on stage during the Clinton Global Citizens awards ceremony for the Clinton Global Initiative 2014 (CGI) in New York, in this file picture taken Sept 21, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - Chelsea Clinton has given birth to a daughter named Charlotte, the first grandchild of former US President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton and her husband Marc Mezvinsky announced the birth of their first child on Saturday morning. The baby's name is Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.

Chelsea Clinton announced the baby's birth on Twitter, saying she and her husband are "full of love, awe and gratitude as we celebrate the birth of our daughter, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky."

The baby arrives as Hillary Clinton deliberates on whether to seek the White House in 2016, a decision that could put her on a path to becoming the nation's first female president.

Clinton is the leading Democratic contender to succeed US President Barack Obama and has said she expects to make a decision on whether to run around the beginning of 2015.

The baby has been eagerly anticipated as Hillary Clinton considers her political future - she has called the prospect of becoming a grandmother her "most exciting title yet." She even has picked out the first book she intends to read to her grandchild, the classic "Goodnight Moon."

The former secretary of state has said she didn't want to make any decisions about another campaign until the baby's arrival, pointing to her interest in enjoying becoming a grandmother for the first time.

The former president has been eager to become a grandfather. During an event with former President George W. Bush in September, Mr Clinton's cell phone rang on stage and he joked that only two people had the number "and they are related to me," musing that he hoped he wasn't becoming "a premature grandfather."

"Every day I get up and I say, 'You have to remember whose child this is. Do not interfere. Be there when you are welcome. Be loving but not judgmental," Clinton said to laughs in an interview with CNN at his annual Clinton Global Initiative, only days before the baby's arrival.

Even Obama got into the act. Addressing the annual Clinton confab, Obama quipped if Chelsea Clinton went into labor during his speech, "she has my motorcade and will be able to navigate traffic."

The 34-year-old Chelsea Clinton announced her pregnancy in April at the end of a forum in New York on female empowerment.

In an interview with Glamour magazine last year she said she and her husband had hoped to make 2014 "the year of the baby."

"I just hope I will be as good a mom to my child and, hopefully, children as my mom was to me," she said at the time.

Chelsea Clinton grew up in the public eye as a teenager in the White House, later graduating from Stanford and Columbia universities. She worked in finance in New York and in public health, earning a doctorate from Oxford University while taking on a prominent role as vice chair of her family's foundation. She recently departed NBC News, where she served as a special correspondent.

The new parents, who married in 2010, were friends as teenagers in Washington and both attended Stanford. Mezvinsky is a hedge fund manager and the son of former member of the US House of Representatives, Majorie Margolies, and Edward Mezvinsky, longtime friends of the Clintons.