McCain enters 2008 presidential race in US

WASHINGTON: Influential Republican Senator John McCain has announced that he will run for the White House in the 2008 race.

McCain, who lost his party's nomination in 2000 to now-President George W Bush, made the announcement on Thursday on an unusual venue: CBS television's 'Late Show with David Letterman,' a popular comedy show.

"I am announcing that I will be a candidate for president of the United States," McCain said on the show.

He later said that he will be making the formal announcement in April. "You drag this out as long as you can," he said, half-joking. "You don't just have one rendition."

The outspoken Arizona senator, 70, once a front-runner among Republican faithful, has seen his standing in the polls slip. A survey on Wednesday placed him well behind his main rival, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

McCain has long supported the unpopular Iraq war, arguing that more soldiers were needed to flush out insurgents, crush militias and train Iraqi forces, a position since taken up by the president.

A former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain even called for more US troops in Iraq following the November 2006 elections that saw Republicans lose control of both chambers of Congress on voter unhappiness with the war.

A poll on Wednesday however showed the senator lagging behind Giuliani, known as "America's Mayor" for his handling of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York.

Giuliani scored 44 per cent support, against 34 per cent on January 19, according to the ABC News/Washington Post poll. McCain slipped six points, from 27 per cent in January to 21 per cent.