Bush, Blair's chat caught on open microphone

Bush was talking privately to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East, not realizing a microphone was transmitting what he said.

"I think Condi (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) is going to go pretty soon," Bush said.

Blair replied: "Right, that's all that matters, it will take some time to get that together." Rice said on Sunday she was thinking of going to the Middle East if it would help.

Blair said Rice has "got to succeed" if she goes to the region. Bush replied: "What they need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this sh--."

The US president blames Syria and Iran for supporting Hezbollah guerrillas operating in southern Lebanon.

Bush also seemed to complain about UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wanting an immediate ceasefire to stop the violence between Israel and Hezbollah.

"I don't like the sequence of it," Bush said. "His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens."

Blair said: "I think the thing that is really difficult is you can't stop this unless you get this international presence agreed."