HONOLULU -- Sen. Daniel Inouye has apologized for suggesting that Sen. Barack Obama's private high school in Hawaii was elitist.

Inouye said before his state's Feb. 19 Democratic caucuses that voters know Obama was born in Hawaii and graduated from one of its high schools, "but he went to Punahou, and that was not a school for the impoverished."

"To suggest that Punahou maybe set his life plan in place, I find it very interesting," Inouye said in an interview with The Honolulu Advertiser.

The Democratic senator is backing Obama's presidential rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Inouye apologized in a letter to the president of the Punahou School, according to Jennifer Sabas, his chief of staff. The letter was sent to Punahou President James Scott late last week, Sabas said Tuesday. A copy and a short note were delivered to Obama as well, she said.

"It was just a misstatement," Sabas said. "It was never the intent to disparage Punahou in any way. It is without a doubt one of the finest schools in our nation."

Inouye's office declined to release a copy of the letter.

Punahou, located in Honolulu, is one of the island's most prestigious private schools. Inouye, 83, graduated from McKinley High School, a public school near Punahou's lush campus.

Obama responded to Inouye's comments in an interview with KITV the Saturday before the caucuses.

"Shame on Danny for trying to pull that stunt," Obama said. "I went to Punahou on a scholarship. I was raised by a single mom and my grandmother."

The letter was written because of the uproar from angry Punahou graduates, students and faculty, Sabas said.

"With the onslaught of former students or alumni that were upset, we thought it was best to put it to bed and get past it," she said.