BUDAPEST, Hungary — Fifty years after Hungary's revolt against communism, President Bush said Thursday that war-weary Iraqis can learn from this country's long and bloody struggle against tyranny.

"Liberty can be delayed but it cannot be denied," the president said.

The Iraq war is widely unpopular in Europe as it is in the United States, and Bush sought to compare the U.S.-led drive to implant democracy in Baghdad with uprisings that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire.

It was Bush's 15th trip as president to Europe and he will return in just a few weeks for the annual summit of industrialized democracies in St. Petersburg, Russia.

He also will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in what was East Germany under Soviet rule. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been irritated by Bush's attention and visits to former Soviet states.

The stop in Hungary was hurriedly arranged when a visit to Ukraine was shelved because of delays there in forming a new government. The White House settled on Hungary because October marks the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution in which students and workers demanded freedom from Moscow.

Twelve days later, Soviet forces brutally crushed the rebellion as Hungarians appealed in vain for America's intervention.

"They crushed the Hungarian uprising but not the Hungarian people's thirst for freedom," Bush said.

"In 1989 a new generation of Hungarians returned to the streets to demand their liberty and boldly helped others secure their freedom as well," the president said.

Bush also recalled his surprise trip to Baghdad last week and suggested similarities between Iraq and Hungary.

Bush said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki "is committed to the democratic ideals that also inspired Hungarian patriots in 1956 and 1989."