The Canadian government is warning its citizens not to appear "boastful" to Americans, who it says suffer from insecurity over the war in Iraq.

The report was compiled from focus groups held this fall in four U.S. cities where Canada is opening consulates, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported.

Canada said the Americans admit they are annoyed by northerners showing off the red Maple Leaf on their luggage when they travel.

The report also said Americans acknowledged they know little about Canadians, and few were aware Canada did not support the U.S. in the war in Iraq, the Ottawa paper said.

"Some participants expressed a certain amount of annoyance at what is perceived as a systematic attempt by Canadians to make the statement that they are not Americans by sporting the Maple Leaf," said the report. "This underscores the American sensitivity at feeling rejected by the rest of the world. ..."

An American from San Diego is quoted saying: "What bugs me about Canadians, if I may, is that they wear that damn patch on their bags, the Canadian flag patch. That way, they differentiate themselves from us."

A resident of Raleigh, N.C., said Canadians are "very patriotic," freely acknowledging they are from Canada while abroad.

"Americans will tend to not even want to tell people because they think they'll get bad vibes from them."

Eight focus groups were conducted in September by Millward Brown Goldfarb in San Diego, Raleigh, Denver and Houston, the Citizen reported.

Pierre Bechard, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said the findings will provide the new consulates with a baseline for understanding American knowledge and perception of Canada.

The Citizen said the findings show the Canadian diplomats have their work cut out for them as most focus-group participants said they were "shocked" when they read over a fact sheet about the country.

"A few express some concern over the U.S.' implied dependence on Canada for energy. ... However, Canada should be careful not to appear "boastful," which could backfire, as Americans do not like to be reminded of any kind of dependence on another country," the report warned, according to the Ottawa paper.

The report said some of the resentment toward Canada over the war has been tempered by "a feeling of uncertainty as to whether the war should have been waged at all."

Even Americans who think Bush has strained relations with the world don't understand why the country's friendly neighbor to the north would want to distance itself, the report said.

But the focus-group findings also said, "unlike France, which is viewed as having forcefully opposed the States, Canada is viewed more as having stayed on sidelines. This suggests that, as long as there are no more harsh and strong criticisms of the U.S. by Canadian officials (there was one mention of the incident where Bush was called a 'moron' by an aide to Prime Minister Jean Chretien), the American public will not bear a strong grudge against Canada."

On security, the report said, "Americans interviewed seemed to be more concerned with Canada's perceived 'lax immigration policy' than with the safety of the border itself."