US election focus turns overseas

Republican John McCain stressed his long experience

US presidential hopefuls are battling for political advantage in the final days before the Iowa caucuses on 3 January start the nominating contest.

After weeks when domestic issues have dominated, Thursday's assassination of Pakistan's ex-PM Benazir Bhutto thrust foreign policy back on the agenda.

Polls suggest a tight race in Iowa among Democratic contenders Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Mike Huckabee is leading the Republican

field in Iowa, according to the polls.

EARLY PRIMARY TIMELINE 3 Jan: Iowa caucus 8 Jan: New Hampshire primary 19 Jan: South Carolina primary (Rep) 26 Jan: South Carolina primary (Dem) 29 Jan: Florida primary 5 Feb: some 20 states including California, New York, New Jersey Q: Primaries and caucuses Q: Presidential election

Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton and Republican Senator John McCain again both made much of their experience as they responded to news of Ms Bhutto's killing.

"My theme has been throughout this campaign that I'm the one with the experience, the knowledge and the judgment," said Mr McCain.

It was a tough world, Mr McCain said, and he knew how to deal with it.

"I know the players, I know the individuals and I know the best way to address the situation," he said.

A similar tone was struck by Mrs Clinton.

"I know from my lifetime of experience you have to be prepared for whatever might happen, and that's particularly true today," Mrs Clinton told the Associated Press.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is built largely on her experience

Mrs Clinton's main rival, Senator Barack Obama, in a direct attack on her, said: "You can't at once argue that you are the master of a broken system in Washington and offer yourself as the person to change it."

John Edwards said he had talked to Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf to urge him to continue "on the path to democratisation, to allow international investigators to come in to determine what happened".

Opinion polls

The latest poll, by the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, for Iowa puts Mrs Clinton, Mr Obama and Mr Edwards in a statistical three-way tie.

Among the Republicans, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, leads in Iowa on 37% ahead of Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, on 23%, with Mr McCain and Fred Thompson both on 11%.

LEADING CANDIDATES US Election polltracker

Mr Huckabee dismissed criticism that his lack of foreign policy and national security experience meant he would be unable to handle crises like the one sparked by Ms Bhutto's murder.

"I don't think it's appropriate to respond in a political way on this," he said.

Mr Romney was equally adamant that his lack of foreign policy experience was not a minus.

"If the answer for leading the country is someone that has a lot of foreign policy experience, we can just go down to the State Department and pick up any one of the tens of thousands of people who spent all their life in foreign policy," said Mr Romney.

Election trail

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani returned to the theme of tackling terrorism.

"[Bhutto's] death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere, whether in New York, London, Tel Aviv or Rawalpindi, is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the terrorists' war on us," Mr Giuliani said during campaigning in Florida.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani leads national polls for Republicans

After Iowa, the election caravan moves on to New Hampshire which holds its primaries on 8 January.

Polls there suggest a neck-and-neck race between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama.

Mr Romney is leading the Republicans on some 32%, ahead of Mr McCain who is polling at 21%, Mr Giuliani on 15% and Mr Huckabee on 11%.

Mrs Clinton and Mr Giuliani continue to lead national polls for their respective parties.