LONDON Forget “read my lips”. When doing business with Madeleine Albright, former US ambassador to the UN and Bill Clinton's secretary of state, you're better off with “read my brooch”. In her new book, just published in the US, Albright reveals that the brooch she chose to wear on her left lapel was determined by the state of play in ongoing diplomatic negotiations. So while Yasser Arafat was treated to a wasp, the South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung, got a more welcoming sun.

The fad kicked off after the Gulf war in 1994 when the Iraqi press referred to her as an “unparalleled serpent” and she decided to wear a coiled snake to her next meeting with Saddam Hussein.

By the time she left office she had a collection of more than 300 brooches - most of them picked up for next to nothing at flea markets - including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher - presumably for meetings with the Taliban - and a gold UFO with three aliens.

Sadly we never got to find out what she would choose for a meeting with Gordon Brown - a dead man walking? - but her brooch idea has already broached the British Labour stronghold. When Hazel Blears resigned from the cabinet in June, she wore a sinking ship - with the message, “Rocking the boat”.

SIDE PANEL

Madeleine's messages

Meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang in 2000, the message was unashamed jingoism “I wore the boldest American flag I had.”

Albright kept some of her best brooches for the Russians. When meeting Russian foreign secretary Igor Ivanov in 2000, she wore a bug, to let the Russians know the State department knew they were being bugged. “I think they got the message.”

For the Middle-East peace talks in 1999, Albright would occasionally wear a wasp for her meetings with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

“I wore wasps on tough days when I wanted to do a little stinging and deliver a tough message.”

“Nelson Mandela represented a new hope for Africa in the mid-1990s. I wore my favourite zebra pins when I met him.”—Dawn/The Guardian News Service