Bush praises Martin Luther King

President George W. Bush has paid tribute to the Reverend Martin Luther King as an American idealist of intellect and courage.

During a ceremony yesterday to mark the anniversary of King's birth, in which Secretary of State Colin Powell received a King award, the President said the Baptist minister from Atlanta was a leader "who loved America enough to confront its injustices".

"Through the power of his intellect, the truth of his words and the example of his courage, he left this country a different and better place," Bush told an audience at the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts, Washington.