Putin Backs Bush Victory

Vladimir Putin waded into the American election campaign in support of George Bush yesterday, declaring that if the president lost, it would lead to the "spread of terrorism" around the world.

The endorsement was a significant boost for Mr Bush who has been under fire from John Kerry for failing to maintain international support for the US "war on terror".

"International terrorists have set as their goal inflicting the maximum damage to Bush, to prevent his election to a second term," President Putin said at a central Asian summit in Tajikistan.

"If they succeed in doing that, they will celebrate a victory over America and over the entire anti-terror coalition. In that case, this would give an additional impulse to international terrorists and to their activities, and could lead to the spread of terrorism to other parts of the world." He added he would respect "any choice by the American people".

It was by far his strongest endorsement of Mr Bush to date, and the most direct intervention in the race so far by a foreign leader.

The endorsement came as Mr Bush regained a small but significant lead in the polls after his mediocre performance in the three debates with Mr Kerry, and on a day when he accused his rival of retreat in the war on terror, playing on memories of the September 11 2001 terror attacks in the hopes of plucking off the reliably Democratic state of New Jersey.

New Jersey lost nearly 700 citizens when hijacked planes struck the World Trade Centre, and the president's visit to the southern parts of the state was aimed at exploiting strong fears of another attack.

Voters in New Jersey overwhelmingly rate terror as their top election issue, providing an opening for Mr Bush to try to loosen Mr Kerry's grip on what had once been viewed as solidly Democratic terrain.

Mr Bush hammered home his point, saying Mr Kerry's criticism of the war on Iraq showed that he could not be relied on to defend America from attack. "Senator Kerry's approach would commit a response only after America is hit. That kind of September 10 attitude is no way to protect our country," he said.

The president argued that Mr Kerry failed to understand the changed world after September 11, clinging to the "mirage of security" that prevailed in the 1990s.

The scene of yesterday's rally in southern New Jersey is far removed from the skylines of Manhattan, which Mr Bush invoked repeatedly to drive home his point that Mr Kerry lacked the gumption for an all-out war on terror.

However, the Republicans are calculating that memories of the attacks would allow Mr Bush to flaunt his grasp of security issues. Although Al Gore won New Jersey by 16 points in 2000, concerns about security have eroded that advantage.

Yesterday's remarks by Mr Putin were timely for Mr Bush. Since he declared after a first meeting with Mr Putin that he had been able to look into his soul, relations between them have been close, and they have portrayed each other as allies in the war on terror.