Republicans Redraw Battle Plans After Iowa Surprise

Mike Huckabee's success in Iowa has made the top of the Republican race in New Hampshire even more crowded as he joins the front-runners John McCain and Mitt Romney.

McCain, whose campaign was almost bankrupted last summer and subsequently written off by the US media, claimed today the momentum was now with him after seeing his chief rival Romney slump in Iowa.

Leading in the polls in New Hampshire, McCain said: "I'm very confident with a strong positive finish here that we're going to win here in New Hampshire."

McCain, who opted to concentrate his campaign in New Hampshire and more-or-less ignore Iowa, hopes to knock Romney out of the Republican race. Having lost to the underdog candidate in Iowa, Mike Huckabee, Romney cannot afford a second defeat in New Hampshire.

Huckabee will find it much harder to repeat his success in New Hampshire, where conservatives tend to be more interested in lower taxes than the issues that attracted evangelical Christians in Iowa.

He moved quickly today to refocus his campaign message from moral values to economic issues, especially his promise to abolish income tax.

"This campaign is not just about people who have religious fervor," the Baptist preacher said as he made the rounds of morning talk shows.

McCain's respectable finish in Iowa - despite not airing a single ad in the state - could solidify his small lead against Romney in the New Hampshire polls.

Romney's defeat and the destruction of his claim to be the Republican establishment candidate provides a new opening to McCain. McCain also hopes to tap into the large pool of independent voters in New Hampshire - as he did in 2000 when he won the state primary.

McCain needs the support of non-aligned voters, who can be decisive in New Hampshire, and to persuade them to vote in a tight Republican race rather than the Democratic contest.

In an election year that seems to favor change over experience, McCain has a big disadvantage: he is 71 and has been a fixture in Congress for a quarter of a century.

The Romney-McCain showdown is further complicated by the entry into the field of Rudy Giuliani, who skipped Iowa. The libertarian Texan, Ron Paul, provides another variable with his cult following on the ground in the state and on the internet, where he raised a surprising amount of money.

The results in Iowa demonstrated that money has not been the defining factor so far in the Republican presidential race. Romney, a multimillionaire founder of a venture capital firm, spent $17m (£8.5m) of his own money on his campaign, including more than $230 per Iowa caucus-goer - only to be beaten by Huckabee.

Romney insisted he would be on more solid ground in New Hampshire, given the different values of Republicans there. "It will be a different race here," he told reporters.

A Zogby poll today, conducted on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, gave McCain 34% support in New Hampshire. That's a four-point lead over Romney, whose campaign as the establishment candidate is now badly damaged after his loss to Huckabee in Iowa.

Huckabee was on 10%, but he could stand a better chance among the social conservatives of South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary on January 19.

Rudy Giuliani who was at 9% in the polls in New Hampshire, was also setting his sights on the states which come later in the primary calendar.

Fred Thompson, the former Law and Order actor who was at 2% in the polls in New Hampshire, was also looking to the South Carolina primary where he hopes to battle it out with Huckabee for the votes of social conservatives.