The light-hearted game, Obama Trampoline, features cartoon caricatures of around 20 Democrat and Republican politicians including Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton and a trouserless Bill Clinton.

Players move the handset to control in which direction and how high the politicians jump, and can even direct them to pop balloons hanging from the ceiling.

But Apple has refused to distribute the application, apparently because it makes fun of Mr Obama and other leaders.

Patrick Alphonso of Swamiware, which created Obama Trampoline, described the technology giant's decision as "bizarre".

"We were really expecting it to be in the store. It's a cartoonish look on them, but it's not out there to ridicule them," he told Wired.

Apple has not made public the reason for rejecting the software, but has previously turned down applications which it deems "ridicule public figures". A word puzzle application was rejected last year for featuring a caricature of the new US president, and a game based on the George W Bush shoe throwing incident was also turned down.

Under Apple's terms: "Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."

The iTunes website stocks thousands of applications that can be downloaded for free or a small charge. As of last month, 500 million applications had been downloaded.

by:telegraph