Giuliani Needs a Miracle As Governor Backs Mccain

John McCain will go into tomorrow's crucial presidential primary in Florida armed with two heavyweight political endorsements which could help to break the deadlock with his nearest Republican party rival in the state, Mitt Romney.

McCain received the backing on Saturday night of Charlie Crist, Florida's popular Republican governor. "He's a great American patriot, a true American hero," Crist said. The endorsement came just a day after Mel Martinez, the Cuban-born US senator for Florida, had also lent his public support to McCain - a move that could prove influential among the state's significant Cuban-American population.

With opinion polls showing McCain and Romney level-pegging in Republican support, the endorsements provide a welcome boost to the McCain campaign. Tomorrow's winner will gain all the state's 57 Republican delegates and a much-hoped for bounce as the candidates head for the "Super Tuesday" primaries on February 5.

Crist's decision came as a blow to Rudy Giuliani, who was hoping for the governor's endorsement after campaigning for almost two months in the state and pumping in his last $3m of funds. But the former mayor of New York is doing so badly in opinion polls, both locally and nationally, that support for him is drying up.

The Florida primary is a so-called closed race, which means only registered Republicans are eligible to vote. That deprives McCain of the independents who turned out in droves for him in earlier states. The senator has been relying on the momentum from his victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina to make up the difference. He has also been adopting a steadily more aggressive approach to Romney in a bid to secure the Republican core.

The two candidates spent much of the weekend sniping at each other in an open display of hostility rarely seen so far in the Republican race. McCain started it by accusing his rival of wanting to set a date to withdraw from Iraq. Romney insisted he had never called for a set date, called McCain dishonest and demanded an apology. "The apology is owed to the young men and women serving this nation in uniform," McCain fired back.