McCain 'cannot continue campaign through economic crisis'

John McCain said he could not continue his presidential campaign as though the "dangerous situation" with the US economy had not occurred today.

Mr McCain has called for the first face-to-face presidential debate of the campaign, scheduled for tomorrow in Mississippi, to be postponed.

Both Mr McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama will meet President George Bush and other US political leaders at the White House later today to try to secure the $700bn (€474bn) rescue package.

Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York before travelling to Washington, the former Vietnam prisoner of war said: "I'm an old Navy pilot, and I know when a crisis calls for all hands on deck.

"That's the situation in Washington at this very hour, when the whole future of the American economy is in danger.

"I cannot carry on a campaign as though this dangerous situation had not occurred, or as though a solution were at hand, which it clearly is not.

"As of this morning I suspended my political campaign.

"With so much on the line, for America and the world, the debate that matters most right now is taking place in the United States Capitol - and I intend to join it.

"Senator Obama is doing the same. America should be proud of the bipartisanship we are seeing."

Yesterday, his rival Mr Obama agreed that the two candidates needed to work together "as Americans" and praised the spirit of bipartisanship.

But he said the debate should go on and Americans needed to hear from their next leader on the crisis.

"Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time," he said.

"I believe that we should continue to have the debate.

"I think that it makes sense for us to present ourselves before the American people to talk about the nature of the problems that we're having in our financial system; to talk about how it relates to our global standing in the world, what implications it has for our national security, how it relates to critical questions like the war in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The University of Mississippi debate was intended to focus on foreign policy issues, after being changed from domestic issues at the behest of the candidates, and, with US political pundits predicting a close election, the three debates between the presidential candidates could be decisive.

Both the university and the Commission on Presidential Debates are continuing to work as if the debate, which was expected to cost five million dollars, was going ahead.

Later, addressing the CGI conference in New York by satellite from Florida, Mr Obama insisted to loud applause that the debate should go ahead.

"Our election's in 40 days, our economy is in crisis, our nation is fighting two wars abroad.

"The American people I believe deserve to hear directly from myself and Senator McCain about how we intend to lead our country.

"But times are too serious to put our campaign on hold. It would ignore the full range of issues that the next president will face."

Mr Obama will also travel to Washington today for the White House meeting aimed at averting a crisis which he described as "as serious as any since the Great Depression".

"Action must be taken to restore confidence in our economy," he said.

"Let me be clear. It is outrageous that we find ourselves in a position where taxpayers must bear the burden and the risk for greed and irresponsibility on Wall Street and in Washington.

"But we also know that failure to act will have grave consequences for jobs, for savings, and for retirement for the American people."

Mr McCain's decision to suspend his campaign, and cancel an appearance on 'The Late Show' with David Letterman, led to criticism from the programme's host.

Letterman questioned whether the Republican, now trailing Mr Obama in some national polls, was in trouble.

"This doesn't smell right," he said.

"This is not the way a tested hero behaves. Somebody's putting something in his Metamucil."

He called Mr McCain "a true American hero" but told his viewers: "This is not the John McCain I know, by God. It makes me believe something is going haywire with the campaign."

He asked his audience: "Are we suspending it because there's an economic crisis or because the poll numbers are sliding?"