It was a proclamation that every child, and many adults, have dreamed of making.

President Bush declared today that he never, ever, wants to see another sprig of broccoli on his plate, whether he is on Air Force One or at the White House or anywhere else in the land.

''I do not like broccoli,'' the President said, responding to queries about a broccoli ban he has imposed aboard Air Force One, first reported this week in U.S. News and World Report. ''And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli!''

Or as Roy Blount Jr. once rhymed the sentiment: ''The local groceries are all out of broccoli, loccoli.''

Veggies on Mr. Bush's Agenda

The 65-year-old President, who addressed the subject of veggies at a news conference on developments in Europe, has always had a whopping appetite. He eats with a shoveling motion, bent over his plate, sometimes sticking his napkin into his shirt like a bib so he won't soil his shirt and tie.