Quotes of the week you must not miss

BEST OF ENEMIES

"See you tomorrow, paedophile friends!"

- French President Nicolas Sarkozy bidding farewell to journalists after an "off the record" encounter in which he condemned allegations without proof.

BAD FOR BUSINESS

"WikiLeaks are an absolutely awful impediment to my business, which is to be able to have discussions in confidence with people."

- US ambassador to Baghdad James Jeffrey on the expected leak of some three million diplomatic cables by the whistle-blowing website.

IRISH GAP

"There is no doubt, an abyss separates us from Ireland."

- Spanish Economy Minister Jose Manuel Campa trying to allay market fears about his country's financial health.

MUZHIK

"In our country, they have a saying -- a real man."

- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin using the Russian term 'muzhik' in praise of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who attended a summit in Saint Petersburg on saving the tiger despite a series of travel problems.

ZERO TOLERANCE

"Should the south Korean puppet group dare intrude into the territorial waters of the DPRK even 0.001 mm, the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will unhesitatingly continue taking merciless military counter-actions against it."

- The North Korean army supreme command explains its shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday, which killed two marines and sparked global condemnation.

COULD DO BETTER

"I am saddened with India. I would like to have thought that India would be standing behind us. That it would have followed in the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and (India's first prime minister) Jawaharlal Nehru."

- Myanmar's recently freed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi criticises India for doing business with the military regime that detained her for most of the last two decades.

EMISSION ADMISSION

"Our emissions volume now stands at number one in the world."

- Xie Zhenhua, China's top climate change official, gives what appeared to be the nation's first public recognition it is the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter.

HISTORIC TRAGEDY

"This is the biggest tragedy since the Pol Pot regime."

- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on a bridge stampede which killed nearly 350 people, referring to the brutal regime that ruled between 1975 and 1979 and left up to a quarter of the population dead.

STRESS TEST

"I sometimes feel like a high school student -- going from one test to another."

- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reflects on the challenges of his job as problems mount from corruption scandals to poor state election results.

SPORTING CHANCE

"My goal is to become a professional golfer. I'm not sure how long that will take, maybe five years, but I'll work and work at it."

- Ali Ahmad Fazel, of Afghanistan, who finished last in the Asian Games golf tournament with a four-round score of 467, 183 over par.