Latvian President Valdis Zatlres has a rare quality: he never lies. At least, that is what he says.

Zatlres, 54, said at a meeting with music students that he has not told a lie to anybody for 30 years and that telling the truth is not difficult.

"It is like giving up smoking - it is hard only on the first week, and things get easier afterward," Zatlers said at a music school in the Baltic state's capital, Riga.

The president said children must not lie, giving the example of people who had secured bank loans by providing untrue data on their incomes.

"It might seem innocent enough, but we can now witness the consequences of such lies," he said referring to the current economic recession that was triggered by the global mortgage crisis.

Zatlres, a former orthopedic surgeon, is known to have confessed before his election in 2007 that he had accepted private donations from patients when a doctor. The confession stirred heated debate in the country and led to an inquiry, but the president was cleared of corruption charges in 2008.

Zatlers is the third president of Latvia since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

RIGA, February 8 (RIA Novosti)