UNITED STATES:BARACK OBAMA has complained of racial divisions intruding on the Democratic presidential race and denounced controversial remarks made by his pastor in sermons a number of years ago.
"If all I knew was those statements that I saw on television, I would be shocked," he said.
"We've got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We've got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding."
In a series of interviews at the weekend, Mr Obama distanced himself from the statements by the Rev Jeremiah Wright, his spiritual adviser for more than 20 years, who officiated at his wedding and baptised his two children.
"You heard some statements from my former pastor that were incendiary and that I completely reject, although I knew him and know him as somebody in my church who talked to me about Jesus and family and friendships," Mr Obama said.
Mr Wright, a pastor at the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago who inspired the title of Mr Obama's book The Audacity of Hope, complained in a 2003 sermon about the treatment of black Americans.
"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme," he said.
Five days after the attacks of September 11th, 2001, Mr Wright told his congregation that the US had itself supported terrorism.
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he said.
Mr Wright has left Mr Obama's African-American Religious Leadership Committee following the controversy over his remarks, videos of which have been aired repeatedly on US television in recent days.
Mr Obama also revealed at the weekend that Tony Rezko, a Chicago businessman on trial for bribing politicians, raised more money for his campaigns than he has previously acknowledged.
Meanwhile, backers of Hillary Clinton and Mr Obama toned down their rhetoric yesterday for fear party infighting might turn voters against Democrats and deliver their votes into the hands of Republican John McCain.
All over the Sunday television talkshow circuit, journalists tried to get campaigners working for Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama to attack the other side, but time and time again the supporters would not take the bait.
"If this party breaks apart, then clearly we'll probably pull defeat from the jaws of victory," Leon Panetta, who was former US president Bill Clinton's chief of staff, said on CBS's Face the Nation.
Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama took the day off after telling their campaigns last week to tone down the language in the race to win the party's nomination for the November election.
Mr McCain, the candidate either Mrs Clinton or Mr Obama will face in November, was in Baghdad. With no Republican competition, the Arizona senator is able to take trips such as this to bolster his foreign-policy credentials.
Democrats have no such luxury. They were still being questioned both about the remarks by Mr Wright and by Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro that many considered racially insensitive. But neither side took the opportunity to attack the other on the issue.
- (Additional reporting: Reuters)