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"I am a public person, and when I say something, either articulated and thought out, or blurted out in a moment of insanity, my words carry weight in the public arena," he said. "As a result, I must assume personal responsibility for my words and apologize directly to those who have been hurt and offended by those words."

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"There is no excuse, nor should there be any tolerance, for anyone who thinks or expresses any kind of anti-Semitic remark," Gibson said in a statement issued by his publicist. "I want to apologize specifically to everyone in the Jewish community for the vitriolic and harmful words that I said to a law enforcement officer the night I was arrested on a DUI charge."

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Gibson has a Mayan-language film called "Apocalypto" due later this year, and his film company, Icon Productions, had been producing a mini-series set during the Holocaust for ABC. The television network announced Tuesday that it was dumping that project.

"Given that it's been nearly two years and we have yet to see the first draft of a script, we have decided to no longer pursue this project with Icon," the network announced. But ABC's corporate parent, Disney, said "Apocalypto" remains in post-production and is scheduled for release in December.

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"We are glad that Mel Gibson has finally owned up to the fact that he made anti-Semitic remarks, and his apology sounds sincere. We welcome his efforts to repair the damage he has caused," Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, told The Associated Press. "Once he completes his rehabilitation for alcohol abuse, we will be ready and willing to help him with his second rehabilitation to combat this disease of prejudice."

"I welcome his words. And I hope and pray that they are sincere and heartfelt," but Gibson needs to show "tangible actions" of repentance, Rabbi Mark S. Diamond of the 280-member Board of Rabbis of Southern California told the AP.

"I don't want to minimize for a moment the hurt and anger, the anguish, his words have created in our community," he said.

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The woman whose repeat drunken driving arrests and fatal crash launched a major state crackdown on DUI offenders has pleaded guilty to her sixth charge.

Prosecutors say Susan Lynn West will face the maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine when she is sentenced Aug. 28. West, 48, has remained in custody since being arrested June 18 for driving drunk in Bellevue.

West had pleaded guilty in 1997 to vehicular homicide for causing a drunken crash that killed 38-year-old Mary Johnsen, a mother of two, as Johnsen walked hand-in-hand with her husband in their Sammamish Plateau neighborhood.

Her most recent arrest in Bellevue came about six months after she was released from probation for Johnsen's death. She got out of prison in 2003 after serving six years of a nine-year sentence.

Prior to the fatal crash in 1997, West had been arrested for drunken driving in Pullman in 1978, in Seattle in 1985, in Marysville in 1989 and Fall City in 1991. Two of the cases were deferred, and one was dismissed.

Because she'd been arrested four times for drunken driving prior to the fatal accident, her case spurred several new state laws in 1998 designed to crack down on drunken drivers.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law making it a felony to have a fifth DUI conviction in 10 years or a DUI conviction after a prior vehicular homicide conviction.

But since that law won't take effect until next July, it doesn't apply to West.

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