First woman declares for 2004

Carol Moseley-Braun is a long-shot for the nomination

Former Illinois Senator Carol Moseley Braun has officially entered the race for the 2004 US presidential elections - the first woman from one of the major parties to do so.

Ms Moseley Braun announced her decision to seek the Democratic nomination to run against George W Bush at a university in Washington on Monday.

Commentators give Ms Moseley Braun - the first black woman elected to the US senate - no chance of winning the nomination.

Her run is being seen as a way of derailing the campaign of another black candidate, Al Sharpton.

Crowded field

"I am uniquely qualified to do the job of president, and I offer the clearest alternative to this current administration, whose only new idea has been pre-emptive war and a huge new bureaucracy," she said.

"America is at a tipping point. If we stay the course we are on now, we won't recognise this country five years from now," she said.

Ms Moseley Braun joins a crowded field jostling for the Democratic nomination.

Former General Wesley Clark, who declared he would run last week, is already well ahead of the other Democrat contenders in the latest poll.

A survey published in USA Today on Tuesday shows both Mr Clark and another Democrat front-runner, Senator John Kerry, leading President George W Bush.

The poll puts Mr Bush's job approval rating at just 50% with support for the war also falling to just half of those questioned.