NEW YORK (AP):

The Rev Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to Barack Obama, said that publicising sound bites of sermons in which he condemned United States policies was "unfair'' and "devious", and done by people who know nothing about his church, according to excerpts of an interview released yesterday.

Wright said that, as an activist, he is accustomed to being "at odds with the establishment'', but the response to the sermons has been "very, very unsettling".

The interview, scheduled for broadcast tonight, is the first the pastor has given since video of his preaching gained national attention in March, putting Democratic presidential hopeful Obama on the defensive.

Among the most remarked upon sound bites was Wright proclaiming from the pulpit "God damn America'' for its racism.

He accused the government of flooding black neighborhoods with drugs.

The controversy forced Obama to explain his 20-year association with the minister, who is stepping down from Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

"The blowing up of sermons preached 15, seven, six years ago and now becoming a media event, not the full sermon, but the snippets from the sermon ... having made me the target of hatred, yes, that is something very new,'' Wright told Bill Moyers' Journal' on PBS.

"I felt it was unfair. I felt it was unjust. I felt it was untrue. I felt for those who were doing that were doing it for some very devious reasons,'' he said.