FACTBOX: Should a president talk to adversaries?

(Reuters) - White House hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have sparred over whether presidents should meet with adversaries, in a clash that could help define the foreign policy debate ahead of the November presidential election.

But Washington has a long history of talking to its enemies and the differences between Republicans and Democrats may be less stark than some of the heated rhetoric suggests.

Following are comments by some U.S. political figures over engaging foes:

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, speaking to the Israeli parliament on May 15:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BARACK OBAMA, an Illinois senator, was asked in a July 23, 2007, Democratic candidates' debate whether he would be willing to meet without precondition with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea during his first year in office.

"I would," Obama said. "And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous."

Obama has since emphasized that while he would not set preconditions for a presidential meeting with U.S. foes, there would be plenty of preparations at the staff level.

"What are George Bush and John McCain afraid of?" Obama said on Monday in Billings, Montana. "Demanding that a country meets all your conditions ... before you meet with them, that's not a strategy, it's just naive wishful thinking," he said.