Obama slams Bush's fear speech

Washington - White House hopeful Barack Obama on Thursday accused President George W Bush of tainting US foreign policy with the "politics of fear" after the US leader implied in Israel that Democrats would appease terrorists.

Bush's comments, in a speech to the Israeli Parliament, ignited a fierce election-year row between the White House and the Illinois Senator, in the president's most direct clash yet with Democrats vying to succeed him.

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said, drawing parallels with 1930s accommodation of the Nazis.

"We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The White House denied the comments directly targeted Obama, who said he would be ready to hold direct talks with leaders of US foes including Iran and Syria, which the Bush administration had shunned.

'Cowboy diplomacy'

But an angry Obama, who held an overwhelming lead in his Democratic nominating contest against Hillary Clinton, swiftly hit back in a statement, as his campaign accused Bush of adopting "cowboy diplomacy".

"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicisation of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel," Obama said.

"Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power - including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria."

Obama's intervention came as his campaign tried to shift the focus away from his climaxing nominating tussle with Clinton and towards a general election showdown with Republican John McCain.

Obama would talk to leaders of US foes

Obama said in a Democratic presidential debate last July that he would be willing to hold talks, without preconditions, with the leaders of top US foes including Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba.

In a subsequent debate in April, Obama renewed his offer for direct talks at a leaders' level with Tehran, saying the Islamic Republic should be pressed with "carrots and sticks" to end its nuclear programme.

But also said he would take no option off the table to stop Tehran from using or obtaining nuclear weapons.

- AFP