Bush goes after Kerry on Iraq war admission

4.00pm - By STEVE HOLLAND

NICEVILLE, Florida. - President Bush accused Democrat John Kerry of shifting positions on the Iraq war as he opened a five-day campaign swing with a bus tour through Republican turf in Florida, a state that was bitterly contested in the 2000 election.

Much of Bush's bus route through beach towns along the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday was lined with Bush's backers, and at his final stop, Panama City, a crowd of thousands cheered him on.

Accompanying Bush was a sometimes rival, Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain, who has closed ranks behind the president. He remains a maverick, however, as shown by his recent criticism of a veterans' group for an ad campaign raising questions about Kerry's service in Vietnam.

"It helps having him stand by my side," Bush told a packed gymnasium at Niceville's Okaloosa-Walton College. Earlier, in Pensacola, McCain said Bush "has led with moral clarity and firm resolve" and two embraced in a bear hug.

McCain, Bush's Republican presidential challenger in 2000 and a Vietnam veteran, said he had asked the campaign to denounce the controversial ad challenging Kerry's service, but to no avail. "I made my opinion known and that's it," he said.

On the Iraq war, the Bush campaign has been pressuring Kerry to say whether he would have still voted for the war given the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found. Bush maintains the world is still better off without former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in power.

Kerry on Monday said he would have voted to give the president authorisation to use force against Iraq "but I would have used that authority effectively."

Bush took up the issue before 10,000 supporters in Pensacola.

"Now, almost two years after he voted for the war in Iraq, and almost 220 days after switching positions to declare himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance," said Bush. "He now agrees it was the right decision to go into Iraq."

"After months of questioning my motives, and even my credibility, Senator Kerry now agrees with me that even though we have not found the stockpiles of weapons we all believed were there, knowing everything we know today, he would have voted to go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power. I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up," Bush said.

Kerry's campaign national security adviser, Rand Beers, fired back.

"The issue has never been whether we were right to hold Saddam accountable, the issue is that we went to war without our allies, without properly equipping our troops and without a plan to win the peace," Beers said.

Bush, under fire by Democrats for slow job growth and jobs lost overseas, emphasised an economic theme in Panama City.

"What I'm telling you is, if you give me four more years we'll still be the leading economy in the world, our farm economy will be strong, more small businesses will exist, and Americans will be able to have better and higher paying jobs," he said.

In Niceville, Bush paced around the gymnasium, answering questions from supporters, including from a woman whose brother was about to be deployed to Iraq and who worried US forces were stretched too thin.

"All of us want our troops out, but what we don't want is to cut short the mission. We don't want politics to decide the mission," Bush said. Kerry has said he would reduce US troops in Iraq significantly by next August.

Bush visits New Mexico and Arizona on Wednesday then goes on to California, Oregon, Washington state and then Iowa during the rest of the week.

(Additional reporting by Caren Bohan)

- REUTERS