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Jenna Bush a hit in Europe

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In a nod to the Live 8 rock benefit generation, maybe to meet U2 frontman Bono or perhaps just because she is on summer vacation, first daughter Jenna Bush is accompanying her parents to the Group of Eight summit in Scotland and is wowing the Europeans.

"The girls are not there to do anything official," a White House spokesman said yesterday, speaking of Jenna and Barbara Bush, 23, who will join first lady Laura Bush on an educational trip to Africa later this week. Nevertheless, the blond first daughter, who has become the object of fascination among the VIPs, was unofficially a hit.

At a luncheon in honor of her father at the Fredensborg Palace in Denmark, Miss Bush appeared to be chatting cozily with 37-year-old Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, and lensmen caught him gleefully flirting back. The prince was wed last year in a fairy-tale royal ceremony to Australian-born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson.

Apparently abandoning her casual club attire, the first daughter looked appropriately conservative in a tweed jacket. Miss Bush's image has not always been so proper.

She is partial to tight jeans and belly-baring tops, and has been spotted at trendy bars in New York and the District. Regarding her feelings for the press corps, they were memorably captured when she stuck out her tongue at reporters during last year's presidential campaign.

Miss Bush and the first lady will meet up in Africa with Jenna's twin, Barbara, who is working on an AIDS-related project in Botswana, and might be joined by Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The trip will take the Bushes to South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda and is aimed at bringing attention to HIV/AIDS education. Like others of their generation, Jenna and Barbara Bush have targeted hunger and disease in Africa as an international cause.

The two women are working to shed their hard-partying images. Late in the presidential campaign last year, both made impressive appearances at rallies and fundraisers.

Although Miss Bush has been regarded as the less serious twin, she holds a bachelor's degree in education from the University of Texas at Austin. She is on vacation from her job as a teaching assistant at a D.C. public school.

Miss Bush last accompanied her mother on a European trip in 2002, visiting Paris, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Last year, she was a part of a delegation to the Olympics in Athens, where she joined her grandparents former President George Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush.

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