With barely a week to go before the beginning of a near-£4m scheme to boost tourism in London, Mayor Ken Livingstone has caused fury in the industry with a verbal attack on US president, George W Bush.

His comments, in front of a group of schoolchildren at City Hall, included a reference to his looking forward to the Bush government being overthrown as much he looked forward to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

He also referred to the president as corrupt and his administration as completely unsupportable.

The remarks were felt by representatives of the tourism and retail industries in London - both struggling to recover from the effects of 11 September and the war in Iraq - to be, at the very least, unhelpful.

Whilst no-one denied Livingstone the right to make his feelings known, it was considered now was not the time to make them.

Tourists from the US make up a considerable number of the overseas visitors to London every year and spend millions of pounds whilst they are there.

The Evening Standard reports Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary, responded: First of all, I've never heard of the fellow. Second, I'm not going to dignify it with a response.

US Embassy officials in London are said to have commented: Mayor Livingstone's opinions about the United States are a matter of complete indifference to the American embassy, the American government and the American people. Details: www.thisislondon.co.uk