President George W Bush said he had a “frank exchange” of views about Lebanon with Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, amid growing congressional unease over the Iraqi leader’s recent description of Israeli’s actions in the country as “criminal”.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday sent a letter to the Iraqi leader ahead of his address to Congress on Wednesday. They called his statements on Israel “troubling” and said his failure to condemn Hizbollah’s aggression “raises serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis” in the Middle East.