Obama distances himself from pastor

CHICAGO, March 15 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a statement Friday calling some of his Chicago minister's words "inflammatory and appalling."

Obama has been increasingly critical of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., The New York Times reported.

"I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue," he said.

Obama and Wright, pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, have had a long relationship. The minister married Obama and his wife, Michelle, and baptized both their daughters. His book, "The Audacity of Hope," took its title from one of Wright's sermons.

In recent days, taped clips of Wright denouncing the United States as a racist country have been broadcast. In one he described the United States as the "U.S. of K.K.K.A." and in another said that U.S. policy caused the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation," Obama said.