Mandela 'worried' by his image

South African anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela is troubled by people who see him as a living saint, he says in a new book due for worldwide release Tuesday.

"Conversations with Myself" is a collection drawn from Mandela's personal archive of letters and journals, providing a glimpse into the human being behind the public image, his foundation said yesterday. The book, with a foreword by President Barack Obama, will be launched in 20 languages across the globe.

"One issue that deeply worried me in prison was the false image I unwittingly projected to the outside world; of being regarded as a saint," Mandela says in an extract of the book published by the Johannesburg-based Sunday Times. "I never was one, even on the basis of an earthly definition of a saint as a sinner who keeps trying."

Mandela, who turned 92 on July 18, has grown increasingly frail, cutting back on his public engagements this year. He missed an annual memorial lecture delivered in his honor in July, the first time he failed to appear at the event since it was launched eight years ago. He made a brief appearance at the soccer World Cup final in Johannesburg on July 11, waving to fans as he was driven around the field in a golf cart.

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison during white rule, served for five years as president following South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994.

Obama said the book does an "extraordinary service" by giving the public a picture of "Mandela the man." He visited Mandela's prison cell on Robben Island in 2006. - Bloomberg News