Washington - Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama accused President George W Bush Thursday of making a "false political attack" by suggesting the senator would appease terrorists if he was elected to the White House.

Obama, who has said he would meet with the leadership of Iran and other US foes, interpreted Bush's remarks earlier in Jerusalem as an attack on him, although the White House said they were not directed at the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Bush was addressing the Knesset to mark 60 years of Israel's existence when he compared meeting with leaders of alleged state sponsors of terrorism to the appeasement of Nazi Germany.

"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. We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said.

"As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history," Bush added.

Obama issued a statement saying he would use "tough" diplomacy to place pressure on Iran and Syria to stop supporting terrorist organizations.

"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," Obama said. "It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel."

"George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel," he said in a statement issued by his campaign.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters in Jerusalem that the remarks were not directed at Obama.

"It is not," she said. "I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you - that is not always true and it is not true in this case." (dpa)