'How many people knew that
Bush doesn't drink'

It was a very jovial Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who addressed a press conference in Lausanne on Monday in which he disclosed that President George W Bush was a teetotaller since the last 16 years.

The insight into Bush's personal habits came during the course of an interaction Vajpayee had at the table they shared at a dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday night as part of the tercentenary celebrations of the city.

"How many people knew that Bush doesn't drink," Vajpayee said, referring to the occasion when they raised a toast at Putin's dinner and said he was himself surprised that Bush didn't.

Bush held in his hand a glass of water and raised a toast to India's health. "I asked him don't you drink (liquor)," Vajpayee said. "Bush replied 'I stopped it 16 years ago'."

When asked about his personal drinking habits, Vajpayee said, "Is it necessary to give an answer to this?" much to the amusement of the gathered journalists.

Bush wanted to know the impact of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in India and Vajpayee said, "Not a single case because we have systems in place."

Bush, according to Vajpayee, apparently tried to avoid German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at the dinner table in the backdrop of their recent differences over the Iraq war.

As host Putin sought to greet his guests leaving the dinner Bush got up to go, but seeing that Schroeder was also preparing to leave, he sat back his seat till the Chancellor left and exited only after that.

One more instance of his humour came when a reporter told him the value of the rupee has shot up against dollar since he left on his current foreign trip. "In that case I will keep travelling outside India so that the rupee will keep going up," the prime minister said.