US: Senator John Kerry held his first press conference in six weeks yesterday, timing it to upstage President Bush's morning speech to the UN and to make a personal attack on Mr Bush for his management of the war in Iraq, writes Conor O'Clery, in New York
The Democratic challenger accused Mr Bush of failing to present a true picture of Iraq to the UN, and of lacking credibility to lead the world.
"He has no credibility with foreign leaders who hear him come before them and talk as if everything is going well, and they see that we can't even protect the people on the ground for the election," he said.
Mr Bush earlier accused Senator Kerry of making the "hardly credible" statement in a speech on Monday that the world was better off with Saddam Hussein in power.
Senator Kerry responded that he said the world was better off without Saddam Hussein but "that doesn't mean you go to war in an irresponsible way".
He said Mr Bush "needs to live in the world of reality" and should "tell the American people "why are our troops facing more terrorists than ever before."
The questions from reporters focused solely on Iraq, indicating how the war is now a central issue in an increasingly bitter election campaign.
The latest Zogby poll shows the presidential race tightening, with Mr Bush ahead by 46 to 43 per cent but leading by 75-19 per cent in the war on terrorism.
In 16 battleground states, the daily tracking poll has Senator Kerry ahead in 11 and Mr Bush ahead in five, and the Massachusetts senator has closed the gap in the electoral college from a Bush lead of 116 to only 17 today, according to electoral-vote.com which focuses on state polls.
A senior aide to Senator Kerry acknowledged yesterday that he talked to a central figure in the controversy over Mr Bush's National Guard service at the suggestion of a CBS News producer, shortly before disputed documents were released by the network.
But Mr Joe Lockhart denied any connection between the Kerry campaign and the memos supplied to the network by Mr Bill Burkett, a former Texas National Guard.
He said he had called Mr Burkett at the suggestion of a CBS producer Ms Mary Mapes and all Mr Burkett wanted to do was offer advice on how to deal with the Vietnam issue.
Both Mr Lockhart and Mr Burkett said the memos were not discussed.
On CBS on Monday evening Mr Burkett admitted he lied when he told the network news he got the documents from another National Guard officer.
"The fact that CBS News and a high-level adviser to the Kerry campaign co-ordinated a personal attack on President Bush is a stunning and deeply troubling development," a White House spokesman said.
On Monday CBS News apologised for using documents it could not authenticate to question Mr Bush's National Guard service.