- OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian
Prime Minister Jean Chretien, whose relations with the White House are
at an all-time low, has decided not to go to Washington to receive an award
next month, officials said on Friday.
-
- Chretien had been formally invited by the U.S. National
Parks Conservation Association to attend a dinner on April 9 to celebrate
his decision last year to create 15 new national park in Canada.
-
- But a spokesman at the prime minister's office said Chretien
-- who has not spoken to Bush for more than a month -- would not be going.
-
- "The prime minister did not feel comfortable receiving
an award for his personal achievements during a time when American women
and men are engaged in a war," he told Reuters.
-
- Asked whether Chretien had any plans to visit Washington
next month, the spokesman said: "He has no plans to go to Washington."
-
- Diplomats said that had Chretien made the trip he would
have been expected to make contact with the White House, which is furious
about Ottawa's decision not to send troops to Iraq United States by Canadian
politicians.
-
- A state visit by Bush to Ottawa on May 5 is under serious
threat because of the war and the sorry state of bilateral political relations.
-
- Earlier this week the U.S. ambassador to Canada broke
with diplomatic protocol and strongly criticized Ottawa for its decision
on Iraq.
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