"Damned Americans. I hate those bastards," Carolyn Parrish, a junior member of the ruling Liberal Party, said as she walked away from an impromptu meeting with reporters in the foyer of the House of Commons.

A strong opponent of any conflict with Iraq, Parrish, a back-bench member of Parliament, said it was obvious to her that the United States was going to war.

"I watched Bush this morning again on TV. That man's ready to go. He's gunning for a fight," she said.

By the end of the day, Parrish said she deeply regretted the comments, which she said were made "in the heat of the moment," and she insisted that they were private remarks.

"My comments do not reflect my personal opinion of the American people and they certainly do not reflect the views of the government of Canada," she said in a written statement.

Relations between Ottawa and Washington have been uneasy because of the divergent political views of Bush, a conservative, and Chretien, a liberal, and acerbic comments made along the way have not helped matters.

In November, Prime Minister Jean Chretien's director of communications, Francoise Ducros, resigned after telling a reporter during a NATO summit that Bush was a moron.

Canadian officials defended Parrish's right to make such comments, although insisted they did not agree. "That certainly does not reflect my view, but we do have free speech in this country," said Defense Minister John McCallum.

Opposition leader Stephen Harper, who heads the pro-American Canadian Alliance, said the repetition by Liberals of such sentiments hurt bilateral relations.

"I don't see the point of those kinds of comments, but they constantly come from the Liberal Party," he said.

"They don't do Canadians any good -- Canadians who are trying to cross the border for business, Canadians who are trying to sell lumber or agricultural products or manufactured goods to the United States."