NEW DELHI - FORMER US president George W. Bush stepped briefly back into the limelight on Saturday, using a conference speech in New Delhi to defend his record and to crack jokes about his retirement.

Bush chose an annual gathering of business leaders in India, a country where his reputation rode high throughout his time in power, to make a rare public appearance nine months after leaving office.

'I have a different life now,' Mr Bush, 63, said wryly. 'I am an old, retired guy.' Reflecting on how his status had changed, he said he recently visited a hardware store in Texas that had offered him a job as a 'greeter' who stands outside to welcome customers.

He said that inside the store a man came up to him and asked if anyone had ever told him that he looked just like George W. Bush. Mr Bush said he replied that it happened a lot, and the man said: 'Gosh, that must make you mad.'

The former president said he had suggested to his wife Laura that it was time she took up cooking, and she had suggested that he might take up washing dishes. 'Nothing's happened,' he told the amused audience.

He added that he was using his free time to write, and joked that 'people said I couldn't even read a book, much less write one.' And he said he was delighted to discover that now he got paid to give speeches, though 'thankfully for you, I don't get paid by the word.' -- AFP