奥巴马与卡梅伦赌球并互赠啤酒

US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron toasted the "special relationship" between their two countries Saturday, swapping¹ bottles of beer after a World Cup bet.

美国总统贝拉克·奥巴马和英国首相大卫·卡梅伦于上周六举杯共庆两国间的“特殊关系”，并互赠啤酒，履行两人间的一个“赌球约定”。

Summit² in Toronto." width="399" height="226" src="http://www.enread.com/upimg/100703/4_032528_1.jpg" />
US President Barack Obama (R) and British Prime Minister David Cameron trade bottles of beer to settle a bet on the US-UK World Cup Soccer game during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Toronto.

The pair, who travelled to Toronto for the G20 summit together in Obama's helicopter after technical issues grounded Cameron's, clinked（发出叮当声） bottles after their first meeting since Cameron took office last month.

They hailed³ the "special relationship" between their two countries after exchanging the drinks following a bet on who would win this month's World Cup football game between England and the United States which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Obama presented Cameron with a bottle of Goose Island 312 from his home city of Chicago, while Cameron gave Obama a bottle of Hobgoblin, which is made in his constituency（选民，支持者） in Oxfordshire, west of London.

"I advised him that in America we drink our beer cold, so he has to put this in the refrigerator before he drinks it," the president joked.

On relations between the two countries, Obama told reporters that he and Cameron had "established a strong working relationship and we are confident that the special relationship is only going to get stronger in the months and years to come."

Cameron agreed, saying: "The relationship between our two countries I think is incredibly strong and I think can get stronger in the years ahead."

Britain is the second-largest contributor of troops to the war in Afghanistan after the United States, but the two did not refer to the recent dismissal（解雇，免职） of General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO forces.

Nor did they publicly comment on BP, the British-based oil giant whose actions have drawn⁴ sharp criticism in the United States over its handling of the Gulf⁵ of Mexico oil spill, the worst environmental disaster in US history.