Carter 'disappointed' with Bush

Jimmy Carter has broken one of the unspoken rules of US politics

Former US President Jimmy Carter has launched an outspoken attack on President George W Bush.

"I have been disappointed in almost everything he has done," said Mr Carter.

I thought he would be a moderate leader, but he has been very strictly conforming to some of the more conservative members of his administration

Jimmy Carter

By publicly criticising the present occupant of the White House, in a newspaper interview with the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Mr Carter has broken one of the great unspoken rules of American politics.

He reserved his most caustic remarks for the Bush administration's plans for a new national missile defence system, describing them as "technologically ridiculous" and likely to cause a new nuclear arms race.

Mr Carter said a US violation of the ABM treaty, which defence officials have predicted is likely to happen under the current policy, would be a setback for the "prestige and respect due our country".

He was particularly critical of the Bush administration's foreign policy, saying that "moderate people" like Secretary of State Colin Powell had been "frozen out" of decision-making.

Mr Carter said the administration's Middle East policy, and its reluctance to press Israel to remove Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, had hurt prospects for peace.

He compared Mr Bush's policy on settlements unfavourably with those of his father, former President George Bush.

"George [Bush] Senior took a strong position on that issue and so did I."

Colin Powell: 'frozen out'

Mr Carter also criticised Mr Bush for not embracing moderate Democrats and Republicans after he won the 2000 presidential election by a razor-thin margin.

"I thought he would be a moderate leader," Mr Carter said, "but he has been very strictly conforming to some of the more conservative members of his administration."

Presidential scholars said it was unusual for former presidents to criticise their successors.

"He must be genuinely disappointed," Erwin Hargrove, a professor emeritus at Vanderbilt University, told the Ledger-Enquirer.