Gingrich will not seek presidency

Mr Gingrich said Republican hopes of victory in 2008 were "slim"

Influential Republican conservative Newt Gingrich has ended months of speculation by announcing that he will not run for the US presidency in 2008.

Mr Gingrich, 64, said new campaign finance laws meant he could not be a candidate while remaining head of his tax-exempt political organisation.

The ex-House of Representatives speaker was seen as a figure with a strong appeal to conservative Republicans .

Counting himself out, he also declined to endorse any Republican candidate.

And speaking on Fox News, he said he would not accept the Republican vice-presidential nomination.

Slim pickings

Republican hopes of beating the eventual Democratic nominee were "very, very slim" unless they could distance themselves from their party's record on Capitol Hill, Mr Gingrich said.

An architect of the 1994 Republican electoral victory in both houses of Congress, Mr Gingrich said he did not want to quit his position at American Solutions, an organisation he set up last October.

Opinion polls put former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani ahead in the race to win the Republican nomination.

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Senator John McCain and actor Fred Thompson are among other leading candidates.