Turning 60, Bush opts for low-key celebration

WASHINGTON, July 6 (Reuters) If President George W Bush is feeling any angst about the arrival today of his 60th birthday, he sure isn't showing it.

''Let me just say this -- it's a lot younger than you think,'' Bush said of hitting the milestone. An avid biker who quit drinking at 40, Bush prides himself on his physical fitness.

Born in 1946, Bush is a member of the huge postwar ''baby boom'' generation. His press secretary, Tony Snow, portrayed the birthday as just another day.

''He feels like it's one day after being 59,'' Snow said.

''You know the president. It's not the sort of thing where he's sitting around somewhere looking at his watch and saying, oh man, I got an achy knee.'' Although his birthday was today, Bush began celebrating at a Fourth of July dinner that included family and friends. He showed up in a red-and-white Hawaiian shirt.

As for gifts that were made public, Bush got a belt buckle from visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and cuff links from staff.

Dinner tonight was to be in Chicago with Democratic Mayor Richard Daley and other local politicians but aides said it was not a birthday party.

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