OPIUM WAR APOLOGY RULED OUT

Mr Cook condemned the Opium War with China - but drew back from apologising on behalf of Britain.

Prime Minister Tony Blair recently apologised to Ireland for the 19th century potato famine and there is speculation that President Bill Clinton will do the same towards the black population of the United States over slavery.

But asked whether he would apologise for the Opium War, Mr Cook said: 'My immediate reaction is that I am disinclined to get into the business of apologising for things that happened 150 years ago and over 100 years before I was ever around to influence events.

'Of course we can condemn the Opium War but to go around the whole world in which Britain was in between 1800 and 1850 apologising for what it did would be a full time job for a foreign minister.'