John Key. Pic: NZPA

Wellington, May 14 NZPA - Prime Minister John Key's "dinner" joke has made headlines worldwide -- and sparked plenty of cannibalism jokes.

Mr Key this week outraged Tuhoe leadership and other Maori when he said this week iwi would not be given Te Urewera National Park as part of a Treaty of Waitangi settlement. This was despite iwi understanding a settlement was ready to be signed off after 18 months of negotiations.

He followed that with a flippant remark at a tourism event in Auckland yesterday about where he had been dining.

"The good news is that I was having dinner with Ngati Porou, as opposed to their neighbouring iwi which is Tuhoe, in which case I would have been dinner, which wouldn't have been quite so attractive," he said.

Mr Key apologised for the remark, which he said was a self-deprecating joke.

It has made headlines from New York to London, and the word "cannibal" has featured in many stories.

"PM's cannibal joke 'in poor taste'," reads the Sydney Morning Herald.

"New Zealand's prime minister apologises for cannibalism joke," appears in Britain's Guardian, while fellow British paper The Telegraph has as its sub-heading: "John Key, the prime minister of New Zealand, has found himself in hot water after joking about an indigenous tribe eating him for dinner."

Reaction has been mixed but Mr Key appears to have emerged well. Jokes have also been coming thick and fast.

"I work with a lady who is a Maori from New Zealand. She is always joking about having us over for dinner," John said on CNN's website.

"Minority whiners are the same all over the world. Sick," posted NoMercy on the same site.

"Who cares! The world has gone soft," Stephen posted on Brisbane's Courier Mail site.

"well if they did eat people... who cares what he said. so sensitive nowadays arnt (sic) we... boohoo...," ex digger posted, while Matt from Bundy pledged his support for Mr Key.

United States publication Vanity Fair noted Mr Key's "passive-aggressive" apology:

"This tactful rhetorician is at once negating anyone's ability to call him insensitive while simultaneously implying that the offended party is being way too sensitive," it said.

But the last word goes to CNN poster GGG: "Bite me."