OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, attempting to head off an embarrassing spat with Washington, has quickly distanced himself from a senior official who reportedly called U.S. President George W. Bush "a moron".
Opposition legislator Jason Kenney told parliament he believed the comments -- which were reported by several newspapers on Thursday -- had been made in Prague by Chretien's communications director Francoise Ducros.
"He (Bush) is a friend of mine, he is not a moron at all," Chretien told reporters in Prague, where he was attending a NATO summit to discuss expanding the alliance.
The incident is unlikely to improve the already rocky relationship between Bush and Chretien, who is clearly uncomfortable with the president's stance on many issues, including his threats of war against Iraq.
A Chretien spokesman in Ottawa declined to comment on the reports, saying they were "an internal matter", but Industry Minister Allan Rock was less reserved. "Obviously, if it's a senior person in our government, it's unacceptable... we should be emphasising how much we value that relationship (with the United States) and we should be very careful at this very sensitive time," he told reporters.
Chretien -- who in 1997 remarked in front of an open microphone that he liked to stand up to the Americans because it was popular -- comes from the left wing of Canada's ruling Liberal Party, which has often looked upon U.S. Republican administrations with suspicion.
The National Post and newspapers from the nationwide Sun chain said the official had expressed frustration that Bush seemed more keen on building up moral support for a possible assault on Iraq rather than focusing on NATO expansion.
"What a moron," the papers quoted the official as telling Canadian reporters on Wednesday evening in Prague.
The White House brushed off the reported remarks.
"I just dismiss it as from somebody who obviously doesn't speak for the Canadian government," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who was accompanying Bush in Prague.
But Chretien's opponents in Parliament seized on the reported comments, demanding the government apologise to the leader of Canada's closest ally and trading partner.
"Sadly this is part of a consistent pattern of knee-jerk anti-Americanism coming from this government...does one good friend treat another by calling its leader a moron?" said Kenney, who belongs to the opposition Canadian Alliance.
Tensions between the two countries have risen in recent months. Canada is locked in trade disputes with the United States over softwood lumber exports as well as a forthcoming U.S. probe into Canadian wheat exports. Ottawa also strongly opposes the idea of a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq.
According to Canadian media reports, White House officials privately refer to the 68-year-old Chretien as "dino", short for dinosaur.
Last month Chretien was strongly criticised by conservative U.S. commentators for linking the September 11 suicide attacks to the perceived arrogance of the United States and the West.
Another bilateral irritant is the persistent public pressure from the United States on Ottawa to dramatically increase defence spending.
defence Minister John McCallum said on Wednesday he would "not urge the president of the United States or the U.S. ambassador to Canada to do my job to ask for more defence spending" and on Thursday stuck to his guns.
"I stand by what I said, and what I said was that this was a made-in-Canada decision," he told reporters in Prague.