ATHENS, Aug 20: Angry at being used by US President George Bush in a political broadcast, Iraq's Olympic officials said on Friday that their athletes were set up.

Iraqi footballers reacted furiously when told their country was being used in a campaign ad, calling on Mr Bush to stop using them to win votes.

"Iraq as a team does not want Mr Bush to use us for the presidential campaign," midfielder Salih Sadir was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated magazine. "He can find another way to advertise himself."

However, the Iraqi delegation accused journalists of deliberately provoking an angry response from their players. "Our purpose is not to politicize the football team in any way," Mark Clark, a consultant for the Iraqi Olympic Committee, said. "It seems the story was engineered."

The flags of Iraq and Afghanistan appear in the Bush commercial ahead of the Republican convention later this month. A narrator says: "At this Olympics there will be two more free nations - and two fewer terrorist regimes." Asked to comment, another Iraqi player asked: "How will (Bush) meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes."

ODDS DEFIED: But Mr Clark insisted journalists were wrong to take advantage of the athletes. "It is a little naughty," he said. "The players are not very sophisticated politically, they are a little naive. Whoever posed these questions knew that the reaction would be negative.