British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Monday for the deployment of international forces to stop Hezbollah from bombing Israel.
President Bush, not realizing his remarks were being picked up by a microphone at a summit of world leaders, bluntly expressed his frustration with Hezbollah's actions.
``See, the irony is what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this (expletive),'' Bush told Blair in a discussion before the Group of Eight leaders began their lunch.
Bush's remarks were picked up by the summit's closed-circuit television, which was filming the leaders sitting down to eat. Normally, the images are transmitted with sound that does not allow reporters to pick out individual comments.sound. But in this case a microphone picked up Bush's comments to Blair.
Blair, whose remarks were not as clearly heard, appeared to be pressing Bush about the importance of getting international peacekeepers into the region.
The tape shows Bush buttering a roll while Blair stands behind him pressing his point on the Middle East. At another point in the tape, Bush jokes with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the size of Russia and how long it will take leaders to fly home. Putin made a reply that could not be heard.
Bush, a stickler for keeping to his schedule, also thanked another leader for a gift of sweaters and said, ``We have to keep this thing moving. I have to leave at 2:15.''
# posted by masquerader @ 18:06 ::
