In an attempt to shed his 'Bush-lite' image, Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff used a recent interview to call the U.S. president "a disaster," while saying he has no "remaining confidence" in the Americans' handling of Iraq.

"This president has been a disaster for the authority and the influence of the United States," Ignatieff told The Globe and Mail during a recent interview.

Ignatieff said Bush didn't capitalize on the post-9/11 conditions that could have paved the way for a unified Western front.

"A historic opportunity was missed by the Bush administration that Americans are now realizing was a catastrophe -- and a catastrophe not only against their values, but against their interests."

Ignatieff said his views, and that of many Canadians, is not anti-American but rather anti-Bush.

On Iraq, Ignatieff explained that his initial support of the war was marred by his failure to predict the incompetence of U.S. officials.

"(I take) full responsibility for not having anticipated how incompetent the Americans would be. I don't have remaining confidence in the Americans... The Bush operation in Iraq betrayed any hopes I had of Iraq transitioning to a stable political elite, and now all those hopes rest with my friends, the Iraqi political elite."

Asked to respond to Ignatieff's comments, David Wilkins, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, said "I could not disagree more."

But Wilkins said he understood that Ignatieff is in a race for the federal Liberal leadership, which may have influenced his comments.

"With my years of experience in politics, I understand political rhetoric," said Wilkins. "Let's leave it at that."

Ignatieff's observations come as even Bush admitted Wednesday that he sees a possible parallel between the increasing violence in Iraq and the 1968 Tet offensive that triggered the loss of American support for the Vietnam War.

When asked about a New York Times opinion piece that called the current Iraq situation "the jihadist equivalent of the Tet offensive," Bush said the comparison "could be right."

On Afghanistan, Ignatieff said his support for the two-year extension of Canada's military commitment in the country is largely based on his vision of Canada as an independent nation.

"I've supported the Afghan mission precisely because I don't want to live in an American imperial world... If we don't, as Canadians, want to live under American domination... then we have to have the courage to take on a difficult mission with our NATO partners and get it done. If we don't want a world run by the Americans, Canada has to lead."

Ignatieff, who is seen as the most hawkish of the Liberal candidates when it comes to foreign policy, says his Liberal ideals stem from the Pearsonian example, of which he says he has followed since age 17.

"I'm a Mike Pearson Liberal. I want to reinvent the party as a progressive social force."

Ignatieff's comments come as the Liberal front runner tries to regain campaign momentum after coming under fire for making controversial comments, in which he called an Israeli strike on the Lebanese village of Qana a war crime.