WATCH: Did Barack Obama bow to Saudi King Abdullah?

U.S. President Barack Obama has drawn fire from conservative commentators in the press and the blogosphere after video surfaced on the Internet apparently showing Obama bowing before Saudi King Abdullah during the G-20 economic summit in London on April 1.

Political Web sites and editorial pages of newspapers with a rightist bent were critical of what they term as the president's "break with diplomatic protocol."

In the clip, Obama appears to bow before the Saudi monarch, lowering his head in the direction of Abdullah's hand as he shook it just moments before G-20 leaders posed for a group photograph in London last week.

"Such an act is a traditional obeisance befitting a king's subjects, not his peer. There is no precedent for U.S. presidents bowing to Saudi or any other royals," the conservative Washington Times wrote in an editorial.

The buzz surrounding the bowing controversy prompted the White House to issue a denial on Wednesday.

"It wasn't a bow. He grasped his hand with two hands, and he's taller than King Abdullah," an Obama aide told the Internet news site Politco.com on Wednesday.

Obama's overtures to the Muslim world are a centerpiece of his foreign policy, as demonstrated this week during his historic address to the Turkish parliament as well as his commitment to solve the stand-off with Iran over its nuclear program through diplomatic channels.

The U.S. "is not and never will be at war with Islam," Obama told Turkish lawmakers. "America's relationship cannot and will not be based on opposition to Al-Qaida."

Obama is also intent on actively promoting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a position that could place him on a collision course with the government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In an unprecedented move, the Obama administration is readying for a possible confrontation with Netanyahu by briefing Democratic congressmen on the peace process and the positions of the new government in Israel regarding a two-state solution.

In recent weeks, American officials have briefed senior Democratic congressmen and prepared for the possibility of disagreements with Israel over the peace process.