President Bush's national security advisor has criticised foreign secretary Jack Straw for describing the State of the Union address as election rhetoric.

Speaking at the British Embassy in Washington, Straw said: "I thought the State of the Union speech was best understood by the fact that there are mid-term congressional elections coming up in November."

However the advisor, Condolezza Rice, claimed that the speech had nothing to do with American politics.

"This is not about American politics and I assume that when the British government speaks about foreign policy it's not about British politics," she said.