WATERLOO, Iowa, Oct 20 (AFP) - Democratic nominee John Kerry Wednesday accused President George W. Bush of leaving America more vulnerable to terror and alone on Iraq, branding him stubborn, in denial and a failed leader.
In a formal response to Bush's own ferocious offensive on Monday in which he accused his rival of "giving up" the fight against terrorism, Kerry claimed : "on George Bush's watch, America is more threatened than we were before."
He said Bush had fractured US alliances, with a go-it-alone policy on Iraq and presided over a rise in global terrorism, in what aides billed as a major address in Waterloo, Iowa less than two weeks before the election.
"This president says he is a leader. Well Mr President, look behind you, there's hardly anyone there. It's not leadership if we haven't built the strongest alliance possible and America is going almost alone.
"The president's failures in Iraq have made us weaker, not stronger in the war on terrorism. That is the hard truth. The president refuses to acknowledge it."
Kerry's assault was a calculated bid to challenge the Bush campaign's assertions that he does not understand the US anti-terror fight, and was wallowing in a "September 10" mentality.
He expanded his attack on Bush for failing to capture suspected September 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, accusing the president of ceding the battle to terrorists by invading Iraq.
"Far from being destroyed, Al-Qaeda has spread, with thousands of militants plotting and planning in 60 countries ... global terrorism is increasing, not receeding.
"The president took his eye off the terrorists."
Kerry also rejected one of Bush's most favoured applause lines that everything Kerry is proposing to staunch the insurgency in Iraq is already being done.
"He couldn't be more wrong -- or more out of touch with reality."
Kerry seized on claims by the White House that it has trained up to several hundred thousands Iraqi soldiers to eventually take over security in the troubled country from US troops, and fleshed out in greater detail than he has before how he would train Iraqis with training centers in Europe.
He again slammed Bush for his rationale for invading Iraq.
"America is fighting, and must win, two wars. The war in Iraq and the war on terror. President Bush likes to confuse the two," the Massachusetts senator said, criticizing the incumbent for major "misjudgments by stubbornness."
"You know, the president keeps saying how certain he is about things but you can't just be always certain and frequently wrong. It doesn't make sense."
The Democratic challenger also accused Bush of failing to eliminate Islamic militant Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi before the Iraq war.
"Before the war, the administration claimed Zarqawi's presence in Iraq was proof of an Al Qaeda-Saddam connection. That was wrong," Kerry said.
Kerry said that Zarqawi, who Sunday pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and is believed to be behind the beheadings of western hostages in Iraq, had been operating in Kurdish areas in northeastern Iraq.
"We could have but did not take them out. That was a terrible mistake this administration has never explained," Kerry said.
Bush administration officials had linked Zarqawi -- believed to be 37 or 38 years old -- to Al-Qaeda and Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.
But earlier this month, a new CIA assessment found no conclusive evidence that Saddam gave safe haven to Zarqawi before the US invasion.
Kerry also pledged to reopen one-on-one talks with North Korea over its nuclear program.
In his most strident call yet for direct talks with Pyongyang, he said Bush had sat by and allowed Pyongyang's arsenal to rise from two nuclear weapons to six or eight bombs.
"That means that North Korea ... a country that will sell anything to anyone, can sell nuclear weapons and still hold and arsenal in reserve," he said.
"I will work with our allies to get the six party talks back on track. And I will talk directly to the North Koreans, as our South Korean, Chinese and Russian partners have requested us to do."
Bush's predecessor Bill Clinton did conduct one on one talks with North Korea, sending his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to Pyongyang to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in late 2000.
But Bush halted that approach when he came to office, a position solidified when it emerged that North Korea had been enriching uranium, in violation of a 1994 anti-nuclear treaty with Washington.