LONDON, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- US President George W. Bush has claimed that he was on a mission from God when he launched invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a senior Palestinian official in an interview to be broadcast by BBC TV series this month.

    Bush made the comments when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath during the Israeli-Palestinian summit in June 2003, just four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, BBC said in an excerpt of the interview released on Thursday.

    "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God'.God would tell me, 'George go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did," said Shaath, who is now the Palestinian information minister.

    "And then God would tell me,' George, go and end the tyranny inIraq' And I did," said Shaath.

    Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian prime minister, who was also part of the delegation at Sharm el-Sheikh, told the BBC that Bush had said, "I have a moral and religious obligation. I must get youa Palestinian state. And I will."

    A BBC spokesman said the content of the program had been put to the White House but it had refused to comment on a private conversation.

    According to the BBC, White House spokesman Scott McClellan dismissed it as "absurd" allegations, saying "he's never made suchcomments."

    The three-part BBC TV series, "Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs," is due to be broadcast on Monday from October 10 at 2200 BST (2200 GMT). Enditem