"I don't think I am the same type," Chretien said in an interview from Shawinigan, Que., on Monday.

"To be on the same list is surprising for me, but it is very rewarding at the same time."

Buckingham Palace announced that the "special mark of honour" is a personal gift from the sovereign and does not require, as some other awards do, any advice from the Canadian government.

The honour, which includes a medal and the right to put O.M. after his surname, recognizes Chretien's 40 years in public service. Nelson Mandela is an honourary member.

Chretien said he first met the Queen briefly in 1967 and got to know her when he and his wife, Aline, hosted the royal family for six days during the Northwest Territories centennial celebrations in 1970.

"I was their host from village to village; it was quite a trip," he recalled.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff issued a statement congratulating Chretien, the prime minister from 1993-2003, who spent nearly four decades as a member of Parliament and served in Pierre Trudeau's cabinets.

Chretien said he frequently met the Queen at official events in Canada and Commonwealth meetings abroad. He briefed her twice during the process to patriate the Canadian constitution in the early 1980s.

"I had to work with her. She was always nice to me," he said. "I gave her the opportunity all the time to practise her French. She's very good in French. She always started speaking French with me, and her mother, too."

He recounted a lunch with Her Majesty and the Queen Mother at Sandringham House, the royal family's private estate, where they spoke exclusively in French.

"They said they didn't have enough occasions to practise so they used the occasion."

He laughed recalling an elaborate hoax in 1995, when a Montreal radio host impersonated him and talked to the Queen on the phone for nearly 15 minutes about the referendum on Quebec separation.

When Chretien apologized, "She said she thought I had too much of a drink that day.

"She thought it was very unusual but she behaved in a very professional way as she always does. . . . She was good humoured about it."

Chretien, who at 75 is working as a lawyer and said he has no plans to retire, will receive the honour at a ceremony in Britain in the fall. When one of the 24 members of the order dies, he or she is replaced.

"Here I am, a politician from rural Quebec who is honoured by Her Majesty," Chretien said.

"It's an honour, a personal gift. That's what makes it so meaningful."

He is only the third Canadian to be appointed to the order since it was established more than a century ago. The others were former Liberal prime ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King and Lester Pearson.

Robert Finch, head of the Monarchist League of Canada, said Chretien's work on the constitution and longevity as prime minister created "an opportunity for the Queen and him to build a solid relationship," and "this is the reward."

The Queen invites members of the Order of Merit to get together annually. Other current members are former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, playwright Tom Stoppard, Australian opera singer Joan Sutherland, physiologist Andrew Huxley and several other Nobel laureates.

"It's her personal choice," said Palace spokesman David Pogson. "It's the Queen's gift, and so I'm not aware of the Queen's personal views, particularly regarding ministers or indeed, in this case, a former prime minister.

"Having said that, this honour is always conferred on individuals of exceptional distinction, including people that have contributed significantly or exceptionally to areas such as public service, so naturally a former prime minister fits very well into that particular criteria of a public servant."

The Order of Merit was established in 1902 by King Edward VII to recognize exceptional distinction in the arts, learning, sciences and other areas, such as public service.

Past British holders of the order have included writers Thomas Hardy, James Barrie, T.S. Eliot, E.M. Forster, Graham Greene and Ted Hughes; former prime ministers Sir Winston Churchill and Earl Attlee; military leaders such as Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, and Earl Mountbatten of Burma; and aircraft designer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland. Among the very few foreign recipients have been Dr. Albert Schweitzer, former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

"The badge is an eight-pointed cross of red and blue enamel surmounted by the imperial crown; in the centre, upon blue enamel and surrounded by a laurel wreath, are the words in gold lettering 'For Merit,' " the Palace release said.

Chretien said he may use the initials O.M. on his official letterhead. "I don't distribute a lot of personal cards."