STOCKHOLM, May 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George Bush has declined to meet Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg at the White House, said reports reaching here from Oslo on Tuesday.
Bush's staff would not arrange the meeting because of the Norwegian left-center coalition government's criticism of the war in Iraq, and Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen's support for a boycott of Israeli products, according to Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).
Jan Petersen, who was Norway's foreign minister in the last center-right government, told NRK that he feared a phone conversation Stoltenberg had with Bush shortly after last fall's election put a damper on relations between the United States and Norway.
In the conversation, Stoltenberg told Bush that he would order the withdrawal of Norwegian officers from Iraq.
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