Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom said on Thursday that the world's battle against terror should abide by international law.

"This fight against terrorism can be successful only if every step and measure taken are in line with international law," Solyom told reporters after meeting U.S. President George W Bush, who arrived here on Wednesday evening for a one-day official visit after attending an annual EU-U.S. summit in Vienna, Austria.

Solyom's remarks were an allusion to European perceptions that the U.S. anti-terror campaign often transcends legal norms. That theme was also sounded by EU leaders on Bush's previous stop in Vienna, where thousands of people took part in anti-U.S. demonstrations.

Bush, however, did not respond to Solyom's concerns, but focused on the 1956 Hungarian uprising, which was crushed by troops from the former Soviet Union.

"I am here to celebrate the 1956 revolution, the idea of a revolution that celebrated the notion that all men and women should be free," he said. "I'm also here to confirm the friendship between Hungary and the United States."

Many Hungarians, like Europeans elsewhere, are critical of America's presence in Iraq, the U.S. prison for terrorist suspects at Guantanamo, Cuba, reports of secret CIA prisons in Europe and the controversies surrounding Abu Ghraib and Haditha in Iraq.

On Wednesday, around 15,000 people marched through Vienna to protest against the visit by Bush for the EU-U.S. summit.

Source: Xinhua