KEY POINTS:
FORT MYERS - The Iraq war took centre stage in the Republican race for the White House on Saturday as front-runner John McCain accused rival Mitt Romney of backing a timetable to pull US troops out - a charge Romney angrily denied.
The testy exchange marked a change of focus to Iraq from the flagging US economy just days before Tuesday's vote in the hotly contested Florida race, the next Republican battle in the state-by-state contests to pick nominees for the Nov. 4 presidential election.
The fireworks began when McCain accused the former Massachusetts governor and business executive of proposing a timetable to withdraw US troops from the Iraq war, which McCain has long backed.
"Governor Romney wanted to set a date for withdrawal similar to what the Democrats are seeking, which would have led to a victory by al-Qaeda in my view," McCain told a rally at a restaurant decked out with stars and stripes.
In April, Romney said President George W. Bush and Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should have timetables and milestones for reducing the number of US troops in Iraq but that those should not be made public.
In those comments, made to ABC News, he stopped short of seeking a specific date for withdrawing troops.
Romney demanded an apology from McCain, a 71-year-old four-term senator from Arizona and Vietnam War hero.
"To say that I have a specific date is simply wrong and is dishonest and he should apologize. That is not the case. I've never said that," Romney told reporters in Land O'Lakes, a Florida city of about 21,000 people.
On Friday, the rivals bickered over who knew more about the US economy, which Romney has put at the centre of his campaign amid growing fears of a recession.
But on Saturday, the back-and-forth between them put the spotlight of media attention back on the Iraq war, a dominant theme of McCain's campaign.
"I was there when he said he wanted a timetable for withdrawal," he told voters in Sun City, a retirement community. "I think the apology is owed to the young men and women who are serving this nation in uniform."
A poll this week by The Miami Herald put McCain in a statistical tie with Romney, giving him 25 per cent of the state's Republican vote, compared with Romney's 23 per cent and Giuliani's 15 per cent.
Worsening economic conditions are not the only factor that has drawn attention away from the war. The decline in deaths among US troops has led to less media coverage of the war, shifting the debate to issues such as health care, the subprime mortgage and credit crisis and immigration.
Florida is the largest state to vote so far and is an important test of Republican support because only party members are allowed to participate. McCain had relied heavily on independents in his primary victory in New Hampshire.
- REUTERS
