White House hopeful Barack Obama lauded the "miracle" of Israel on Wednesday, as he met top officials and somberly honoured Holocaust victims on the latest leg of his international campaign tour.
   
The Democratic senator, on a sprint through the Middle East and Europe designed to convince American voters of his presidential mettle, was also to travel to the West Bank to swap ideas on peace moves with Palestinian leaders.
   
Obama, 46, opened his day with talks with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who was later set to join him on a helicopter tour of Israel's cramped topography, a rite of passage for potential US presidents.
   
When he met opposition Likud chief Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama quipped: "I could fall asleep standing up," after a gruelling journey through Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq and Jordan, with three stops in Europe still to come.
   
Obama also toured the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem, a repository of testimony, pictures and artefacts from Europe's death camps and ghettos, bearing witness to the murder of six million Jews.
   
He laid a wreath at the Hall of Remembrance, where ashes recovered from Nazi extermination chambers are interred.
   
Obama, who leads Republican rival John McCain in most polls of the gripping 2008 White House race, also paid his respects to veteran president Shimon Peres, saying he had been a key player for most of Israel's 60 years.
   
"You have been deeply involved in this miracle that has blossomed and we are extraordinarily grateful not just as Americans but as world citizens for your outstanding service to your country," Obama said.
   
"You are someone who has forgotten more than I will ever know on these issues."
   
Later Wednesday, Obama was also due in Sderot, a southern Israeli town that has long been in the firing line of rockets and mortars from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
   
Obama, who has promised to work from his first day in office, if elected, to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, also had a trip to Ramallah planned for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
   
On Tuesday, however, he said peace hopes were dimmed because Palestinian politics was divided between Fatah and Hamas, and turmoil was wracking Israel's fragile government.
   
Despite his round of presidential-style meetings, Obama's team insisted he would not attempt to interfere in current US policy on the Middle East.
   
"The United States of America has one president at a time, that president is George W. Bush, so he will not be engaged in any shape or form in negotiations or policymaking or the like," said Obama foreign policy aide Susan Rice.
   
Though Obama is trying to forge early ties with foreign leaders, much of the audience for his foreign trip is back at home, and he is being especially watched by the powerful American Jewish community.
   
Europe, where Obama arrives on Thursday, is experiencing a bout of enthusiasm for his candidacy, but opinion formers are more circumspect in the Middle East, where there is uncertainty about his policies.
   
Columnist Yair Lapid, writing in Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily, said, "Our problem with Obama is not his views ... rather, his priorities are our problem. The Israeli issue is simply not urgent for him.
   
"For Obama, any dollar sent to us means one dollar less for Detroit's poor neighbourhoods.
   
"Any flak jacket sent to the (Israeli army) is taken from a US Marine in Iraq; any dispute with the Saudis will turn into inflated fuel prices at gas stations in Los Angeles."
   
The Haaretz daily ran a blunt headline: "Obama visiting Israel to impress Jewish voters not Israelis."
   
The Illinois senator has so far yet to score the near 80 percent support among Jewish Americans enjoyed by previous Democratic candidates like Bill Clinton, Al Gore and John Kerry.
   
There has been concern among Israelis about Obama's offer to talk to Iranian leaders, and he angered Palestinians in June by saying an undivided Jerusalem must remain as Israel's capital.
   
Hours before Obama's arrival Tuesday night, regional tensions intruded when a Palestinian man was shot dead after launching a bulldozer rampage that wounded at least 16 people near the King David Hotel where Obama is staying.
   
Israeli police said they had tightened security immediately after the bulldozer attack -- the second such incident in three weeks -- and that the state of alert would remain until after Obama's visit.