NEW YORK: Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama on Thursday blasted President Bush for criticising him in a speech in the Israeli Knesset on Thursday morning terming it a “false political attack on a foreign soil.”

In a statement Senator Obama decried what he called “extraordinary politicisation of foreign policy” and said: “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”, he 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. 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”.

“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 stressed.

In a telephone interview on CNN , Robert Gibbs, the communications director for Senator Barack Obama, called Mr. Bush’s remarks “astonishing” and an “unprecedented political attack on foreign soil’ calling it “cowboy diplomacy”.