London, Jan 25 : British Prime Minister Gordon Brown doesn't like being portrayed as `fat' in cartoon strips.

Cartoonists have revealed that Brown repeatedly complains to them in person that they portray him as overweight.

Speaking at a new exhibition of sketches and caricatures chronicling Brown''s first 18 months in office, UK''s leading political cartoonists have revealed how the Prime Minister takes offence at his bulky portrayal in cartoons.

"I met Brown briefly once, and he said: ''You draw me far too fat. I''m not that fat.'' But then I heard exactly the same story from Martin Rawson [of the Guardian], so it''s obviously his stock line of conversation with cartoonists," The Telegraph quoted Dave Brown, of The Independent, as saying.

Telegraph cartoonist Nick Garland said: "All of us draw Brown as hulking and big. In fact he should take that as a compliment. He is a heavyweight figure, a presence.

"That''s preferable to the way someone like William Hague was constantly portrayed - as an ever shrinking gnome.

"I''m always rather touched when politicians get so sensitive about the way we draw them. But really they''ve just got to put up with it." (ANI)