Bush pollution gaffe surprises G-8 leaders

RUSUTSU, Japan — President Bush has been known for unguarded comments at previous meetings of world leaders, but British newspapers reported Thursday that he surprised a number of them with a joke about environmental policy as he left the G-8 summit in Japan.

Bush, who has been criticized for being reluctant to join international efforts to combat global warming, reportedly ended a private meeting with the words: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter."

The Web sites of the British newspapers The Independent and the Telegraph both reported that he then punched the air while grinning.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared shocked at the comment Bush made before leaving the G-8's last meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido, where the leaders of the world's richest nations had been discussing new targets for cutting carbon emissions.

One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene told the Telegraph: "Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America's record on pollution."

When leaders of the world's richest nations, the so-called Group of 8, gathered two years ago in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bush was caught on microphone talking about everything from his penchant for Diet Coke to his long-winded fellow leaders. ("I'm not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.")

On Tuesday, the day after a similar lunch at the Japan summit, an embarrassed White House issued a formal apology to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi for having distributed a biography to reporters that noted his "convictions on a number of corruption charges" (all overturned) and used the word "suave" to describe him.

Compiled from New York Times and Seattle Times staff