WASHINGTON (AFP) - President George W. Bush and his Democratic rival John Kerry scouted votes in key battleground states but were already looking ahead to their crucial televised debates starting in a week.
Both sides said their candidates would take breaks from campaigning to prepare for the first encounter September 30 at the University of Miami, Florida, which will be devoted to foreign policy and homeland security.
Three debates in all are scheduled in the race which appears to have quickened, with Bush surging to a clear lead earlier this month but Kerry picking up steam with hard-hitting attacks on the president's Iraq policies.
Kerry on Wednesday spent another day in the pivotal southeastern state of Florida, which gave the White House to Bush in 2000 after a hotly disputed recount, and scored what he called was the president's plans to partially privatize Social Security.
Bush was in the eastern industrial state of Pennsylvania, which went Democrat four years ago but now is a toss-up, according to the latest polls six weeks before the November 2 ballot.
The two candidates spent the earlier part of the week flailing away over Iraq, with Kerry harshly criticising the Republican for misleading the US public and Bush going before the United Nations to staunchly defend the March 2000 invasion.
Bush was to welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to the White House Thursday to help spread his message that the war to oust Saddam Hussein was worth it despite the US failure to find suspected weapons of mass destruction.
But the two candidates were already making plans to hunker down to ready themselves for the televised debates which could be key in determining the outcome in November.
White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the president would prepare at his Texas ranch where he will travel Friday after campaigning in the midwestern state of Wisconsin.
Bush would stump in the midwestern state of Ohio on Monday, then return to the ranch before leaving Wednesday for Florida on the eve of the debate in the city of Coral Gables.
Kerry was to spend time at home in Boston over the weekend and fly Sunday to Madison, Wisconsin and the hillside resort of Spring Green in the state's north to bone up for his televised clash with Bush, aides said.
The two men will meet again on October 8 at Washington University in the midwestern city of St, Louis, Missouri and hold a final encounter on domestic and economic issues on October 13 at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.
Kerry's campaign appears to have picked up momentum since he decided last week to focus his message on Iraq, and he pressed the attack on Bush while in Florida on Wednesday, accusing the president of living in a "fantasyland."
"Every step of the way this president has made the wrong choice," the Democrat said.
But Kerry, who has warned of deepening chaos in Iraq, said in a radio interview that he would not send additional US troops even if turmoil persists into next year.
Kerry told National Public Radio the United States could not cut-and-run after the March 2003 invasion. "Not having a failed state in Iraq, it seems to me, is important to our country's security," he said.
But he virtually closed the door on sending additional US troops to Iraq if he has no success in his plan to replace some of the 140,000 American personnel with soldiers from other countries and Iraqi security forces.
"I do not intend to increase troops," he said in remarks that appeared to contrast with an earlier position in April.
"If it requires more troops in order to create the stability that eliminates the chaos that can provide the groundwork for other countries, that's what we have to do," he then told NBC's "Meet the Press."
Both candidates are practically tied at 48-45 percent, with Bush in the lead, in the a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll with a three point margin of error conducted over the weekend among 1,006 registered voters.
As to Iraq, the poll found that by a 52-40 percent margin Americans thought the Iraq war was not worth the US cost in lives and money, and 53 percent said they were not confident the war would come to a successful conclusion.
After his meeting with Allawi at the White House on Thursday, Bush will attend rally in Bangor, Maine. Kerry will address two rallies in Iowa before heading to Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who is running for president as an independent, suffered another setback Wednesday when a federal appeals court upheld a ruling denying him a place on the ballot in Illinois.