Take Away, Please

Former US president Jimmy Carter is offering to act as a mediator to Burma in response to the military regime's recent crackdown on protesters.

"If the leaders of Myanmar would accept my presence, I'd be delighted" to serve as an envoy, he told Guardian America. Mr Carter has been known for his decades of involvement in international political and humanitarian crisis since leaving office.

But Mr Carter, who was president when America boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics, rejects the notion of boycotting the 2008 Beijing Olympics over the issue.

Mr Carter, promoting a new book, Beyond the White House, said he did not apologise for the title of his highly controversial previous book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, seen by some as a slap at Israel.

But he acknowledged in the interview his regret for a "misstatement" suggesting Palestinians agree to stop terrorism in return for Israeli actions. Mr Carter said he removed the statement from further book editions, including the new paperback.

The former president also cited what he saw a bright spot over the apartheid linkage controversy. "The criticism that it aroused, it probably increased the sale maybe a couple hundred thousand" more books, he said.

------ It's time his managers take pen and paper away from Jimmah.