Britain's Cameron calls Nigeria, Afghanistan 'fantastically corrupt'

LONDON, May 10 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron, perhaps not realizing he was being recorded, said Tuesday that Nigeria and Afghanistan may be "possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world."

Cameron was talking to Queen Elizabeth II and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at an event at Buckingham Palace marking the British monarch's 90th birthday, when he made the comments.

"We've got the leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries coming to Britain," Cameron can be heard saying, referring to the upcoming Anti-Corruption Summit in London.

Afghanistan's Ashraf Ghani and Nigeria's Muhammadu Buhari are scheduled to attend a summit on anti-corruption, starting Thursday.

Britain's ITV News recorded Cameron's comments and released them Tuesday. It wasn't clear whether Cameron knew he was being recorded.

Later in the conversation, the prime minister agreed with the archbishop of Canterbury that Buhari is not corrupt himself and is trying very hard to tackle the problem.

The British prime minister's office refused to comment on his remark when asked by ITV News. But it noted that Ghani and Buhari have describes their nation's problems with corruption.

Ghani described Afghanistan as "one of the most corrupt countries on Earth." Transparency International's annual Corruption Perceptions Index ranks Afghanistan 166 out of 168 countries (North Korea and Somalia jointly placed last on the list) while Nigeria ranks 136.