Belafonte's 'house slave' jibe infuriates Powell

Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, frostily rejected an attack by the singer Harry Belafonte, who likened General Powell's position in the Republican establishment to the obedient house slave who was allowed "to come into the house of the master".

In an radio interview, Mr Belafonte, a liberal political activist, said: "There's an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you."

General Powell said the remarks were "unfortunate". "If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine," he said. "But to use a slave reference ... is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place, that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."