WASHINGTON - UNITED States Democrats erupted in outrage on Thursday after President George W. Bush suggested a pledge by the party's presidential front-runner Barack Obama to meet Iran's leader was akin to appeasement of Nazi Germany.

Mr Bush's comments, made in Jerusalem to the Israeli Parliament during celebrations for Israel's 60th anniversary, stirred up the campaign for the November election and prompted Mr Obama to accuse him of engaging in 'the politics of fear'. 'Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,' Mr Bush said.

Without mentioning Mr Obama by name, Mr Bush compared 'this foolish delusion' to the prelude to World War II.

The United States entered the war more than two years after the German invasion of Poland when Japan attacked Pearl Harbour in Hawaii in 1941.

Mr Bush, who has generally avoided talking about the campaign to elect a new president in November, drew a sharp response from Mr Obama, the first-term Illinois senator who is close to defeating rival Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Mr Obama maintains he would be willing to meet with leaders of hostile nations like Iran, Syria and Cuba. He argues the United States blundered by refusing to talk to them.

'False attack'
'It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack,' Mr Obama said.

'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,' he said.

Republican John McCain, who has clinched his party's presidential nomination, did not repeat the word 'appeasement' when asked about Mr Bush's comments as he campaigned in Ohio.

But he did criticise Mr Obama's pledge to speak directly to United States foes, particularly Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He said Mr Obama needs to explain why he would talk to him.

'It shows naivete and inexperience and lack of judgment to say that he wants to sit down across the table from an individual who leads a country that says that Israel is a 'stinking corpse', that is dedicated to the extinction of the state of Israel. My question is, what does he want to talk about?' Mr McCain said.

Ms Clinton, who has criticised Mr Obama's pledge to meet Mr Ahmadinejad, nonetheless came to his defence.

'President Bush's comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it,' she told reporters.

Both Mr Bush and Mr McCain frequently criticise Mr Ahmadinejad for threatening Israel and believe he must be stopped from developing a nuclear weapon, a goal Iran denies.

White House spokesman Dana Perino insisted Mr Bush did not specifically mean to target Mr Obama, saying 'there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that President Bush thinks we should not talk to'. A prominent McCain backer, Connecticut independent Senator Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic vice presidential candidate, said Mr Bush 'got it exactly right' by rejecting the idea that 'if only we were to sit down and negotiate with these killers they would cease to threaten us'. Many Democrats slammed Mr Bush and pointed out the words of his own defence secretary, Mr Robert Gates, who said on Wednesday: 'We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them.'

The Bush administration has talked directly with Iran over the conflicts in its neighbours Iraq and Afghanistan and has offered to discuss a wide range of issues if Teheran agrees to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.

'If George Bush believes engagement with Iran is appeasement, the first thing he should do when he comes home is demand the resignation of his own Cabinet,' former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, an Obama supporter, said.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said Mr Bush's remarks were 'beneath the dignity of the office of the president and unworthy of our representation at that observance in Israel'. -- REUTERS