US:BARACK OBAMA has sought to calm a renewed controversy over his former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, who said this week that the Democratic presidential candidate was acting as "a politician" in denouncing his controversial sermons.
Rev Wright, who was Mr Obama's pastor for 20 years, said in an interview broadcast last night that his statements were taken out of context and distorted to portray him as a fanatic.
"The blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the snippets from the sermon . . . having made me the target of hatred, yes, that is something very new," Rev Wright told Bill Moyers' Journal on PBS television.
"I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt - for those who were doing that - were doing it for some very devious reasons," he said.
Mr Obama denounced the pastor's remarks, which included the suggestion that the 9/11 attacks were America's "chickens coming home to roost" and an exhortation to African Americans to say "God Damn America" rather than "God Bless America".
Rev Wright dismissed the Illinois senator's denunciation, however, which was delivered during a speech on race in Philadelphia.
"He's a politician, I'm a pastor. I do what I do. He does what politicians do," Rev Wright said. "What happened in Philadelphia, where he had to respond to the sound bites, he responded as a politician."
Mr Obama said yesterday that he was not surprised by the pastor's disagreement with his denunciation of the controversial remarks.
"I understand that he might not agree with me on my assessment of his comments. He is obviously free to express his opinion. I've expressed mine very clearly. I think what he said on several instances was objectionable and I understand why the American people took offence," he said.
Rev Wright's return to the public stage comes as Mr Obama faces crucial electoral tests in North Carolina on May 6th amid new questions about his electability in November.
Mr Obama has a comfortable poll lead in North Carolina but he is effectively tied with Mrs Clinton in Indiana, a state Mr Obama has described as a tie-breaker in the Democratic race.
Campaigning at a petrol station in Indiana yesterday, Mr Obama sought to blame Mrs Clinton and Republican John McCain for rising fuel prices.
He blamed high petrol prices on Washington and a political establishment - his two rivals for the presidency included - that he says has not stood up to oil companies.
"The candidates with the Washington experience - my opponents - are good people. They mean well, but they've been in Washington for a long time and even with all that experience they talk about, nothing has happened. This country didn't raise fuel efficiency standards for over 30 years," he said.
"So what have we got to show for all that experience? Gas that's approaching $4 a gallon."
In North Carolina yesterday, Mrs Clinton taunted her opponent over his refusal to debate with her before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.
"The only question I can't answer is why Senator Obama won't debate me in North Carolina," she said. "Again, I offer that I'll go anywhere, anytime, and we'll have that debate as long as Senator Obama would agree to actually meet me."
Mrs Clinton expressed concern over the diet of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who has been campaigning on her behalf in North Carolina, and urged supporters to serve him fish.
"You gotta help me out here, though - my husband loves North Carolina, and he loves barbecue, and he's been eating a lot of it across the state," she said.