Oprah declines Bush invite to Afghanistan

Winfrey declined Bush's invitation to Afghanistan due to "her responsibilities to her show."

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Oprah Winfrey turned down an invitation from President Bush to join a U.S. delegation to tour Afghanistan's schools, a spokeswoman for her company, Harpo Productions, said Friday.

The spokeswoman said the talk-show host respectfully declined because, "given her responsibilities to her show, she's not adding anything to her calendar."

The Chicago Tribune reported that, after Winfrey declined, the White House postponed the trip, which was to include such prominent women in the Bush administration as advisers Karen Hughes and Condoleezza Rice.

But a senior administration official said the trip was postponed for security reasons, not because Winfrey declined.

"The White House was considering sending an official delegation to go over [to Afghanistan] on the first day of school" which was March 25, the official said.

The official, who did not want to be identified, would not elaborate on the security concerns and would not say which high-profile people agreed to participate. The trip is still a possibility, the official said.

During testimony earlier this month before Congress, first lady Laura Bush talked about plans to send a U.S. delegation to Afghanistan to mark the return of girls to Afghan classrooms. The former authoritarian Taliban regime had banned girls from attending school.

The trip was intended to highlight positive results of the war against terrorism and to counter continuing talk of bombing and fighting, of which some key voting groups may be tiring, the Tribune said.