Robert Redford and George W Bush are unlikely to be on each other's Christmas card list. The actor has consistently criticised the US president's policies.

One of Redford's main beefs is the environment, and this time he pulled no punches in calling Mr Bush's position on green issues as "disaster" and his attitude to the subject "dangerous".

But Redford has no plans to become a politician himself, preferring to use his status as an actor and celebrity as a platform to voice his views.

"I'm not interested in standing for office. It takes a certain kind of ego and a certain kind of sensibilities and emotional make-up," he said.

"I have always found compromise very difficult to deal with and to be in the political arena pretty much forces you to compromise."

He also called the political system "decrepit and diseased".

Redford has consistently attacked Bush's policies

But he knows that he is in a privileged position that means that his voice can be heard. He feels that being in the entertainment business brings with it a responsibility.

Redford has been a star of film and television since the early 1960s and rose to prominence in the 1969 western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Aging

But he is now just as known for his political opinions and the Sundance Film Festival, which he founded to showcase independent film.

He has also won respect for not going under the surgeon's knife, happy for the signs of ageing to catch up with him.

He says he has tried to maintain a sense of privacy in his life without closing himself off from the world.

"Without access to the real world and regular people you will lose your sense of place and sense of balance.

"I mean I really need that to do the work I do in films. I need to be able to observe and find the truth.

"To do that you have to be able to get out there and you can't do that if you are camouflaged by your own celebrity," he said.

But he also admits that if fans come up to him and say "you're Redford" he will sometimes pretend he is not.

Extreme shock

He has run into criticism because of his stance on American politics.

At a time when patriotism is at an all time high in the US, Redford's barbed comments about Bush are not looked on kindly by some.

"I believe that after 11 September the shock that occurred - the idea of innocent Americans being killed - was so extreme and so powerful, that we all owed it to ourselves and to our government to take a pause and reflect and pull together in support while we were getting the facts.

"It's a year later and I think there has been enough dust settled for us to take a hard look at what happened and evaluate how we are going to deal with it, questioning decisions and processes which is very healthy, and should be a very American thing."