Portuguese PM under fire for smoking during a flight

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

LISBON (AFP) — Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates Thursday offered an apology for lighting up in a plane while travelling to Venezuela for an official visit and said he would try and kick smoking.

"I had been smoking with the economy minister" during the flight, Socrates was quoted as saying by the Portuguese press Thursday.

"I had thought that we could smoke as we had done during earlier journeys," he said, following uproar in Portugal, where the opposition demanded he pay a fine for breaking the law.

"This episode made me realize that smokers can break the law unwittingly," he said.

Socrates met with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez late Wednesday. The leader asked him if he would give up smoking to which Socrates replied: "Yes, yes."

© 2008 AFP