WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush stirred up the campaign to replace him by suggesting on Thursday that Democratic front-runner Barack Obama's pledge to talk to Iran's leader amounted to "the false comfort of appeasement."

Bush, on a visit to Israel to mark its 60th anniversary, became involved in presidential politics at home just as the man he has endorsed as his successor, Republican John McCain, was seeking to distance himself from the unpopular president in many ways.

But Bush and McCain are of the same mind on Iran. Both frequently criticize Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his threats against Israel and they believe he must be stopped from developing a nuclear weapon, a goal Iran denies.

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They are at odds with Obama, who has held firm to a position that if elected in November, he would be willing to meet with leaders of hostile nations like Iran, Syria and Cuba, believing the United States has blundered in the past by refusing to talk to them.

"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," Bush said, without mentioning Obama's name.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of 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," he said.

The White House said Bush was not specifically referring to Obama but rather all those who hold that position.

Obama said in response to Bush: "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."

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