Bolton turns Bush critic

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- John Bolton, a former U.N. ambassador and close ally of U.S. President George Bush, has become an outspoken critic of Bush's foreign policy.

Bolton has said Washington's efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program have been crippled by "4 1/2 years of failed diplomacy" and the White House's quest for peace between Israel and the Palestinians has cause the administration to violate its stance against proliferation in the Middle East, The New York Times reported Friday.

Bolton, who was a member of Bush's legal team during the disputed vote recount in Florida following the 2000 election that brought the president to power, said he left his position at the United Nations after the administration began changing its tactics to a more moderate policy of negotiation.

"I thought the policy had been moving in the wrong direction for quite some time," Bolton said of his departure.

"Not only was it moving in the wrong direction, it was going to continue in the wrong direction no matter what I did," he said in the Times' article. "So in the cost-benefit calculus of being in the government, I just felt that on policy terms I could do more outside the government than within."