Prescott denies report

LONDON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has denied a newspaper report that he said U.S. President Bush's administration had been "crap" on Middle East.

The London Independent had said Prescott made the remark at a private meeting Tuesday with some Labor members of parliament.

Various media reports quoted Prescott as saying in a statement, "This is an inaccurate report of a private conversation and it is not my view."

The Independent's report said some of those present at the meeting with Prescott had said they could not remember him making the remark. But MP Harry Cohen, who represents an area where police have carried out raids in the alleged plot to blow up airliners, told the newspaper Prescott plainly used the word.

"He was talking in the context of the 'road map' in the Middle East," said Cohen. "He said he only gave support to the war on Iraq because they were promised the road map. But he said the Bush administration had been crap on that."