The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Washington

White House contenders Barack Obama and John McCain are rolling up their sleeves for a gruelling, five-month slog to the election as they trade fire over the economy and the wrenching US housing crisis.

Obama was able to turn a full-bore offensive on his Republican adversary for the first time Monday after his rival in the Democratic nomination battle, Hillary Clinton, staged an emotional exit from the race at the weekend.

Polls show the US economy is now the top concern of voters, ahead of the Iraq war, with the May jobless rate posting its sharpest rise in two decades, the property market in crisis and fuel prices topping four dollars a gallon.

That was the backdrop to an Obama speech delivered in the Republican stronghold of North Carolina, showing he intends to give no quarter to McCain as both candidates hunt deep in the other's territory for moderate voters. The Illinois senator said that despite mounting home foreclosures nationwide, President George W. Bush had warned against political interference in the property market.

"Now, Senator McCain wants to turn Bush's policy of 'too little, too late' into a policy of 'even less, even later'," he said, pursuing a course of tainting McCain by association with the deeply unpopular president.