U.S. Bolton criticises Bush foreign policy - magazine

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton seen during a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo in this January 17, 2007 file photo. U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy is in free fall and puts the nation's security at risk, Bolton told a German magazine on Sunday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush's foreign policy is in free fall and puts the nation's security at risk, former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told a German magazine on Sunday.

Bolton, who was a leading hawk in the U.S. administration and favoured a tough stance against Iran, North Korea and Iraq, told the Der Spiegel weekly that Bush needed to rein in Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"His foreign policy is in free fall. The president is acting against his own judgment and instincts (and is) under the influence of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice," he was quoted as telling the magazine.

Bolton said Rice's was the dominant voice on foreign policy and that she was a channel for the views of liberal career bureaucrats in the foreign ministry.

"(Bush) does not supervise her enough. That is a mistake," he was quoted as saying, adding that a moderate foreign policy was a threat to U.S. security.

"North Korea will, for example, now keep its nuclear weapons. And the Iranians have got a signal from our own intelligence services that they can do whatever they want.

"I am not as confident as the intelligence services that Iran has stopped its nuclear weapons programme."

The former diplomat, who quit his U.N. job last December after failing to win Senate confirmation and now works at a think-tank, also predicted a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq if Hillary Clinton became the next U.S. president.