SYDNEY -- The United States lashed out Friday at Australia's Labor opposition over what it saw as increasingly personal attacks on the U.S. President and refusal to support the deployment of troops to the Persian Gulf.

As Prime Minister John Howard prepared to leave for talks with President George W. Bush in Washington, U.S. officials warned the personal nature of some of Labor's anti-American rhetoric was unhelpful to the U.S.-Australia alliance.

The complaint was also made to opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd when he visited Washington last week for talks with senior U.S. officials.

U.S. Ambassador to Australia Tom Schieffer said Friday that Labor's opposition to the deployment of troops to the Persian Gulf was unhelpful.

"Some of the rhetoric that has come out of this debate over the last week is very personal, very emotional," he said.

He denied the United States was trying to bully the Australian Labor Party or telling it what its position ought to be, adding: "We're in the business of trying to express what American foreign policy is. "The Australian Labor Party has to make up its mind as to how it reacts to this process." His remarks followed attacks by some Labor MPs, notably frontbencher Mark Latham, during a parliamentary debate in which he described Bush as "flaky and the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory." He also referred to Howard's Liberal Party MPs as "a Conga-line of suck-holes to Bush."

Labor opposes war with Iraq unless sanctioned by the United Nations and has strongly opposed the Australian government's decision to become only the second country after Britain to send troops to the Persian Gulf to join the U.S. military build-up.

Opposition Labor leader Simon Crean hit back at Schieffer saying he was being naive.

Crean said he had consistently stated his support for the U.S.-Australia alliance but said he was not backing away from Labor's position and shrugged off Latham's attack.

"My argument is with John Howard," Crean told ABC Radio. "It's not critical of the U.S. president, it's critical of John Howard being too compliant with what the U.S. president wants.

This is one of the most important debates this country has had involving the sending of young men and women to a war and putting their lives on the line," Crean said. "Now if he thinks that debate is not going to get emotional, if he thinks that things are not going to get passionate, I think he's being pretty naive."

Howard told commercial radio that while he did not support Crean's stance, the Labor Party should be able to express its views.

"In a democracy such as Australia, the Labor Party, much as I've violently disagreed with the way they have handled this issue, have a total right to express whatever foreign policy it chooses," he said. Howard leaves Saturday for the United States to meet Bush in Washington on Monday and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York later next week before leaving for London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Bair. (AFP)