The US President had just begun proposing a toast to the Queen when the orchestra accidentally struck up God Save The Queen.

However, rather than pause and continue the speech after the music had stopped, Mr Obama pressed on only to be rebuffed when he raised his glass to her.

The Queen did not seem to take offence at the mishap and appeared to stifle an embarrassed smile.

Protocol demands that people stand to attention when the national anthem is played.

Seated between the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall for the white tie function, Mr Obama got to his feet and addressed the guests saying: “Ladies and gentlemen, please stand with me and raise your glasses as I propose a toast.

“To Her Majesty the Queen.”

Mistakenly believing that was their cue, the orchestra of the Scots Guard began playing the national anthem.

Mr Obama continued: “For the vitality of the special relationship between our peoples and in the words of Shakespeare to ‘this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England’.”

Raising his glass, halfway through the anthem, he concluded “to the Queen”, but seemed baffled when she did not respond.

Looking around sheepishly at the rows of guests stood in silence, Mr Obama placed his glass back on the table and clasped his hands until the band had finished.

He then repeated the gesture to the Queen, who smiled again, as she finally raised her own glass to the President.

Numerous US news websites poked fun at the President over the gaffe.

Jake Tapper, ABC’s White House Correspondent, commented: “It almost felt like one of those moments at the Academy Awards when the speech from the recipient for Best Original Screenplay goes on too long and the orchestra tries to hustle him or her off the stage.”

Today President Obama laughed off the incident and said that the opening bars of God Save The Queen gave the conclusion to his address a far more "rousing" tone than he could have hoped for.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/8534947/Barack-Obama-suffers-royal-toast-mishap-at-Queens-banquet.html

What a moron.

I love how the liberal media hushes this up. If this would have been President Bush it would be on the main stream news 24/7 for the next week but being it's Obama it is barely mentioned.

he works too hard at kissing ***. he must make the makers Chapstick very happy. How else does he prevent chafing kissing so much ***?

Dude, the news article that you quoted was published more than a year ago.

You must be desperate to find a reason to criticize President Obama if you have to talk about a minor incident that took place more than a year ago.

Minor incident? It is was only minor because the media didn't go after him a year ago. If it was a Republican it's all they would have played on TV.

Didn't our embarrassing jackass in chief also give her an iPod loaded with hip hop on that trip?

how come he wasn't clued in better by the Chief of protocol?

This isn't the first embarassing mishap the Obama's have had with this same queen.

Much is being made of Michelle Obama and Queen Elizabeth's embrace. As the First Lady and Queen chatted at the G-20 reception on Wednesday night, the Queen touched her hand to Michelle Obama's back, and the gesture was then returned. Royal etiquette dictates that the Queen not be touched unless she reaches out first. Patting the Queen's back, however, is almost unprecedented behavior in Buckingham Palace.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/02/michelle-obama-hugs-queen_n_182237.html