Bush attacks Republican for backing segregation

President George Bush strongly criticised the senior Republican Trent Lott yesterday in an effort to limit damage to the party after comments in which the senator appeared to support racial segregation.

In a rare public rebuke of a fellow Republican, the President said Mr Lott's comments were offensive and wrong and did not "reflect the spirit of the country.

"Any suggestion that the segregated past was acceptable or positive is offensive and it is wrong," he said.

"He has apologised and rightly so. Every day our nation was segregated was a day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals. And the founding ideals of our nation and in fact the founding ideals of the political party I represent, was, and remains today, the equal dignity and equal rights of every American."

Mr Lott, who is due to become leader of the Senate when the new, Republican-controlled Congress returns next month, made the remarks at a party to celebrate the 100th birthday of a retiring senator, Strom Thurmond, who in 1948 ran for the presidency on a segregationist ticket. Mr Lott said Mississippians were proud to have voted for the veteran politician. He added: "And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

Mr Lott has issued a series of apologies. He initially said he had used a "poor choice of words" in what was supposed to be light-hearted praise for Mr Thurmond. But with calls for his resignation mounting, Mr Lott has had to go much further, saying his comments were "terrible". He told CNN: "Look, you put your foot in your mouth, you're getting carried away at a ceremony honouring a guy like this, you go too far. Those words were insensitive, and I shouldn't have said them."

Whether Mr Lott can survive and return to the Senate for his second spell as majority leader is likely to depend on the reaction of the more moderate members of his party. If it becomes clear he has lost the support of a significant number of senators he may be forced to stand down.

While Mr Lott's relationship with the President is thought to be cool, Mr Bush acted primarily from a wish to limit potential damage to the party and his re-election efforts in 2004. Despite efforts by Republicans to portray themselves as members of an inclusive party, about 90 per cent of black voters supported the Democrats in the 2000 presidential election.

Mr Bush's spokesman, Ari Fleischer, offered limited support for Mr Lott yesterday. "The President thought what Trent Lott said was wrong. The President does not think that Senator Lott should resign," he said.

But critics of Mr Lott have pointed out that the senator's comments were not isolated. Earlier this week he was revealed to have made similar comments in support of Mr Thurmond in 1980.