Thatcher handbagged George H W Bush

Margaret Thatcher gave George H W Bush a trademark handbagging over Cold War diplomacy, which included a 'lecture on freedom' when he was the newly-elected US president, it has emerged.

The former prime minister gave Bush a dressing-down over plans to remove US troops from Europe, and also warned him not to 'go wobbly' during the build-up to the Gulf War.

The scolded president later observed that Thatcher 'talks all the time' and turned conversations into 'a one-way' street, but admired her for being 'principled'.

The relationship between the 41st president and Thatcher has been laid bare in a new biography of Bush published this week.

Thatcher had been in power 10 years by the time Bush was elected in 1988, and had a famously warm relationship with his predecessor Ronald Reagan.

But Bush had a more difficult start in his dealings with Thatcher, who objected from the off to his plan to calm Cold War tensions by reducing the number of US troops stationed close to the Iron Curtain.

When he told her he planned to remove as many as 20 percent of his forces from the continent, Thatcher sternly opposed him, saying: 'We must not give on this... You are not going to give, are you?'

She followed this with what the president remembers as 'a lecture on freedom' to hammer home her point. After the meeting he wrote: "My first impression: Margaret [is] principled, very difficult... She's a principled woman, and a good friend of the States."