Dalai Lama: I love Bush, but 'not as a president'

In an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan on Tuesday, His Holiness The Dalai Lama said that he loved former President George W. Bush despite his policies.

"I love President Bush, the younger one," the exiled Buddhist monk said. "As a human being, not as a president of America. Sometimes his policies might not be very successful, but as a person, a human being, he's a very nice person. I love him."

The Dalai Lama said that after the United States had invaded Iraq, he told Bush, "I love you, but your policy -- I have some reservation."

The 76-year-old Dalai Lama retired as the Tibetan movement's political leader last year, but remains the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

China seized control of Tibet in 1950, and the Dalai Lama fled the country after a failed uprising in 1959.

The Dalai Lama told Piers Morgan that he supported the Arab Spring in principle.

"[The] world belongs to humanity," he explained. "Not this leader or that leader or kings or queens or religious leaders. Each country, essentially, belongs to their own people."