Hacked private emails have revealed how a US Nato chief believed President Obama did not want to engage with Europe or the Alliance over Russia because he thought they were a ‘threat’.

General Philip Breedlove, former supreme commander of Nato, said he feared the White House viewed the bloc as a ‘worry’ because their gung-ho attitude to war could drag the US into another conflict.

In an email to the former Secretary of State Colin Powell, he asked him to help him persuade the President to take a greater role in the conflict with Russia over the Ukraine.

Emails were leaked from General Philip Breedlove's account and posted onto new website DC Leaks.

His leaked emails were written in September 2014 after the EU and the US imposed sanctions on Vladimir Putin and he withdrew some troops from eastern Ukraine.

They were taken from General Breedlove’s Gmail account and posted on a new website called DC Leaks.

They reveal his campaign to pressure the White House into escalating the conflict, and how a group of secret agitators close to him campaigned to secure weapons for the Ukraine.

The efforts intensified the conflict between the West and Russia.

In one email to Mr Powell, he said: ‘I may be wrong... but I do not see this WH really “engaged” by working with Europe/Nato.

‘Frankly I think we are a “worry”... ie a threat to get the nation drug (sic) into a conflict.

‘I seek your counsel on two fronts... how to frame this opportunity in a time where all eyes are on ISIL all the time... and two... how to work this personally with the POTUS (President Obama)’.

Obama spoke at the recent Democratic National Conference giving his full support to Hilary Clinton.

In another he wrote: ‘POTUS sees us a threat that must be minimised… ie do not get me into a war.’

Responding to the leak, General Breedlove said they were ‘being used to shape a narrative’, but just show ‘a commander reaching out to learned individuals’.