Dalai Lama: I 'Love' George W. Bush 'As A Human Being, Not As President'

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet said he loves George W. Bush "as a human being, not as a president."

“I love President Bush,” the Dalai Lama said in an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan airing Wednesday. When Morgan asked him to clarify which former president he was referring to, the spiritual leader said, "the younger one.”

"Sometimes his policy may not be very, very successful," the Dalai Lama said. "But as a person, as a human being, (he's a) very nice person. I love him."

The Dalai Lama noted that he had "some reservations" about Bush's decisions on national security, and said he expressed his feelings to the president after the start of the Iraq war.

The Dalai Lama has been in America since mid-March, and his remarks on Bush weren't his first political statement. He recently appeared at the University of California San Diego to talk global warming, saying "there are no Democratic or Republican thermometers."