Read Barack Obama's comments in the Yad Vashem visitors' book

Barack Obama completed his trip to the Middle East with a pre-dawn visit to the holiest place in Judaism where he received a mixed reaction from Orthodox Jews.

The US presidential nominee was heckled as he visited the Western Wall in the early hours of Thursday morning, bowing his head in prayer and observing traditional custom by placing a folded piece of paper into the crevice of the wall.

Orthodox men interrupted their morning prayers to catch a glimpse of the Illinois senator, reaching out to shake his hand as he passed them by. But not all were taken by the Democrat. One yelled out: “Obama, Jerusalem is not for sale!” before Mr Obama was whisked away to his waiting plane.

Mr Obama’s visit to the wall ended a packed trip to Israel during which he also stopped at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and visited a house hit by Hamas rockets.

During his week-long tour of the Middle East Mr Obama met Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

He now travels to Europe where he will visit Germany, France and England.

On Wednesday Mr Obama refused to rule out ordering a US military strike against Iran if he is elected President, as he sought to allay Israeli fears that he is ready to appease Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.

The Democratic presidential candidate said a nuclear-armed Iran would be a “game-changing situation” that would pose a grave threat to the world. “I will take no options off the table in dealing with this potential threat,” he said. At a news conference in the southern Israeli town of Sderot, Mr Obama was asked about a pledge he made last year to meet without preconditions the leaders of Iran during his first year in office, a vow that has caused deep unease among Israelis and the American Jewish community.

Mr Obama, incorrectly, replied that what he actually said last year was that he would meet leaders of rogue states “at a time and a place of my choosing” and with “preparations”. “That’s just not true,” a spokesman for John McCain, his Republican rival, said in a statement.

Mr Obama said in Sderot that he would use “big sticks and big carrots” to deal with Iran. In an interview Mr Obama admitted that he was visiting Israel, in part to overcome Mr McCain’s stronger support among Israeli Jews. After talks with Shimon Peres, the Israeli President, he promised to be a staunch supporter of Israel.

Mr Obama said there was a window of opportunity to tackle the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians but gave warning of mounting despair on both sides. In a swipe at President Bush’s slowness to wade into the Middle East, he added: “I will not wait until a few years into my term or my second term if I am elected in order to get the process moving.” He demurred when pressed to say what fresh initiatives he would bring to the process.

The conference in Sderot followed talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Palestinian armed security forces lined his route to meet Mahmoud Abbas, the President and Fatah chief. Mr Abbas later released a statement saying Mr Obama had “corrected” his declaration last month that Jerusalem should be the “undivided” capital of Israel. Earlier, Mr Obama laid a wreath at the Israeli Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in memory of the six million Jews who died.

In the US Mr McCain and his aides fulminated over what they perceive to be media bias in favour of Mr Obama. They released a campaign advertisement entitled Obama Love in which clips of US journalists allegedly fawning over him are played to the tune of You’re Just Too Good to Be True.

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