Washington/New York - Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of slain president John F Kennedy, has withdrawn her bid for the New York Senate seat that is now empty, the Buffalo Business First newspaper reported Thursday online.

The seat became vacant Wednesday when the US Senate confirmed former senator Hillary Clinton as the new secretary of state in US President Barack Obama's new administration.

Clinton resigned her senate seat and was also sworn shortly after the vote.

"I informed (Governor David) Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate," Kennedy said in a brief statement.

Kennedy, 51, whose life has been led mostly behind the scenes, had stirred excitement with her open interest and even campaigning for the seat.

But she was criticized for her lack of political experience.

Caroline and her uncle, Senator Ted Kennedy, 76, played a key role in Obama's bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination by denying their support to Clinton, who had been close to the storied family, and instead backing Obama.

Caroline Kennedy is the oldest surviving member of the former president's family, having lost him to the assassination, her mother Jackie to cancer and her brother, John, to an airplane accident. She has three children. (dpa)