NAIROBI, July 14: Kenya's government is arrogant, greedy and instead of fighting corruption "eats like a glutton", Britain's ambassador said in a rare, blistering attack that led to him being summoned by the foreign minister on Wednesday.

Edward Clay, British High Commissioner in Nairobi, expressed outrage over what he termed "new corruption" since President Mwai Kibaki came to power in Dec 2002 pledging an all-out war on graft.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Chirau Makwere summoned Mr Clay to his office and asked him to substantiate the comments. "The High Commissioner was here on my request on behalf of the government of Kenya to give facts and figures and to name names of the people who took the money," Makwere told reporters.

The British envoy said corruption may account for 15 billion shillings (188 million dollars) and donors were unlikely to fund the budget due to fresh graft. "Evidently the practitioners now in government have the arrogance, greed and perhaps a desperate sense of panic to lead them to eat like gluttons," he said in a speech delivered at a private British business lunch in Nairobi on Tuesday.

"But they can hardly expect us not to care when their gluttony causes them to vomit all over our shoes." Mr Clay's speech was published in full in the East Africa Standard on Wednesday.

Asked about Mr Clay's statement, a British spokesman said: "The sentiment is our policy. What we're saying is that we've followed with increasing concern the allegations of unsatisfactory tendering and contracting procedures in which senior members of the Kenyan government are involved." -Reuters