Kate out after drug rehab

Kate Moss appeared in public last night for the first time since she left a rehab clinic following the drugs scandal that threatened her career.

The 31-year-old supermodel had lunch and shopped with friends in New York.

Croydon-born Miss Moss lost millions of pounds in contracts in the wake of newspaper photographs of her snorting cocaine.

But she has emerged from a month in the exclusive desert rehab centre The Meadows, on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, apparently determined to rescue her image, her life and the career that has so far earned her £30million.

She spent more than an hour dining with an older male friend and a female assistant at a brasserie in midtown Manhattan. Wearing a floral miniskirt, black stockings, leather jacket, boots and sunglasses, she was then driven to an art and antiques superstore, where she browsed among the jewellery for more than an hour before leaving without making a purchase.

The model has just finished working in Ibiza on her first assignment since the drugs scandal.

She helped showcase Italian designer Roberto Cavalli's 2006 collection.

Her three-year-old daughter Lila Grace was with her on the shoot.

Miss Moss reportedly gained around seven pounds while in rehab, giving her a curvier figure.

Earlier this week removal men were seen taking her property out of her North London cottage, fuelling speculation-that she is leaving the capital for good. She owns a £2million farmhouse in the Cotswolds where she is expected to enjoy a low-key Christmas. She is expected to live in America until then.

A source said: 'Kate feels it would help her recovery to get out of London and the party scene.'

Yesterday Miss Moss said nothing about her return to modelling.

Asked if she was happy to work again following the drugs scandal she refused to comment.

And asked if she enjoyed her time in rehab, she again said nothing.

The model has a heavy workload over the next six weeks, with shoots in Los Angeles, New York and Paris.

In the wake of the cocaine revelations in September she lost contracts with H&M, Burberry and Chanel.