US presidential hopeful Barack Obama has dismissed as "empty rhetoric" criticisms of his proposals to pull US troops out of Iraq from the Australian prime minister.
John Howard had said at the weekend that terrorist leaders would be hoping Mr Obama and the Democratic Party won the presidential elections in 2008 because Mr Obama wanted to remove US troops from Iraq by March 31st of that year.
Mr Howard, a staunch ally of President Bush, denied his remarks were diplomatically inappropriate.
Mr Obama said he was flattered that one of Mr Bush's close allies had chosen to single him out for attack and challenged Mr Howard on his commitment to the Iraq conflict.
"I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops on the ground now, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1,400, so if he is ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq," Mr Obama said in Iowa.
"Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."
US senators from both major parties have criticised Mr Howard for his comments.