LONDON - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has personally apologized to the mother of a soldier slain in Afghanistan who was angered by what she said was the leader's botched letter of condolence, a tape released Tuesday showed.
But the mother, Jacqui Janes, accused the prime minister, in a phone call she recorded Sunday, of sending soldiers such as her son to Afghanistan without adequate resources. In an interview broadcast on British television Tuesday, Janes said the prime minister wasn't really contrite when he called.
"He didn't sound apologetic in the phone call, he didn't actually apologize," she said. "He said sorry an awful lot -- sorry that I didn't understand his writing."
Brown has been criticized for his messily handwritten note to Janes, whose 20-year-old son Jamie was killed last month by an explosion.
She said Brown misspelled both her name and her son's in his letter, and accused the prime minister of a lack of respect.
When Brown called Janes to apologize, she reacted in anger.
"I know every injury my child sustained that day," she told Brown. "I know that my son could have survived, but my son bled to death.
"How would you like it if one of your children, God forbid, went to a war ... and because of a lack, lack of helicopters, lack of equipment, your child bled to death?" she asked.
A recording of the 13-minute conversation was posted Tuesday by The Sun tabloid newspaper on its Web site.
Brown, whose sight is impaired, told a news conference later Tuesday that he had apologized for his sometimes illegible handwriting, and said he sympathized with parents who have lost children in Afghanistan.
"I'm a parent who understands the feelings when something goes terribly, terribly wrong, and I understand also how long it takes for people to handle and deal with the grief we have all experienced," Brown said.
Brown's daughter, Jennifer, died in 2002 less than two weeks after her birth. His son Fraser, born in 2006, has been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. Brown and his wife, Sarah, have one other son, John.
Janes said in the television interview that, after the press conference, she decided to accept Brown's apology.
"Today he looked sincere," she said. "He looked humbled and he is now going to get a record of my son's death, the day's events. And I hope that he has the sleepless nights that I've had for the past five weeks."
The prime minister appeared to win public support for making the apology, and for choosing to write letters of condolence by hand to families of soldiers who die in action. Gill Grigg, of the War Widows' Association, said it was "a wonderful gesture" by Brown.
