Howard laughs off Bush's bald jibe

May  2006

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has laughed off a jibe by US President George W Bush about his baldness, pointing to similarly follicly-challenged members of the US administration.

Mr Bush told a White House news conference that the main difference between himself and the Australian leader was that Mr Howard "doesn't have any hair".

Mr Howard appears not to have taken it too personally.

"He actually re-ran that line in the cabinet room and we all laughed and I looked at (Vice-President) Dick Cheney and (intelligence chief) John Negroponte and (John) Snow, the Treasury secretary, and I said, George, I'm in good company," Mr Howard told reporters.