LOS ANGELES - US TALKSHOW host David Letterman sought to draw a line under his feud with Sarah Palin on Monday, apologising for making a raunchy joke about the Republican politician's 14-year-old daughter.

In a transcript of remarks Letterman was to deliver on CBS Television's 'The Late Show' on Monday, the 62-year-old funnyman issued a heartfelt apology for a gag that drew a furious response from Mrs Palin, who is governor of Alaska.

Letterman's gag referred to Mrs Palin's daughter being 'knocked up' by baseball star Alex Rodriguez after the governor and her family recently attended a New York Yankees game.

Letterman said although his joke had meant to target Mrs Palin's 18-year-old daughter, Bristol - whose teenage pregnancy became a talking point during last year's presidential election campaign - his intent was irrelevant.

'I told a joke that was beyond flawed, and my intent is completely meaningless compared to the perception,' Letterman said.

'And since it was a joke I told, I feel that I need to do the right thing here and apologise for having told that joke. It's not your fault that it was misunderstood, it's my fault.

'So I would like to apologize, especially to the two daughters involved, Bristol and Willow, and also to the governor and her family and everybody else who was outraged by the joke.

'I'm sorry about it and I'll try to do better in the future.' Mrs Palin had lambasted Letterman on Friday, telling NBC's Today programme that the veteran chatshow king had 'crossed a line.'

'It was a degrading comment about a young woman and I would hope that people start really rising up in deciding it's not acceptable,' Mrs Palin said.

'No wonder young girls especially have such low self esteem in America when we think it's funny for a so-called comedian to make such a remark.' Mrs Palin had earlier decried the joke as 'inappropriate' and 'sexually perverted,' saying it contributed 'to the atrociously high rate of sexual exploitation of minors by older men who use and abuse others.' -- AFP