Barack Obama's campaign team has accused George W Bush of "a false political attack" after the US President warned against appeasing "terrorists and radicals."

The White House denied Mr Obama was the target of Mr Bush's comments that some people believed the US should negotiate "with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along".

"We've heard this foolish delusion before," said Mr Bush.

Mr Obama has said he would be willing to meet Iran's leaders and those of other regimes the US has deemed to be "rogue".

Mr Bush was speaking from Israel during a three day visit to the Middle East.

By tradition, partisan politics come to a halt when a US President is on foreign soil, and Mr Bush's remarks led the Obama team to quickly cry foul.

Obama spokesman, former Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle, condemned the comments as "outrageous and unprecedented".

He said: "For any President to go abroad and go to another government and use this celebration of democracy to attack a political leader in this country is just unacceptable."

Mr Daschle said there were "off the record" indications from people travelling with Bush that his comments were directed at Obama.

"Whoever is responsible is going to have to deal with the results with their willingness to confront us in this regard and we are going to be doing that all the way through the campaign," he said.

"It is the only way to ensure we set the record straight."

Meanwhile, Democrat and Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton spoke to reporters in Rapid City, Dakota and condemned the President's remarks.

"Bush's comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous," she said.

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