Republican presidential candidate John McCain will participate in tonight's debate against Democrat Barack
Obama, the McCain campaign said today.
Mr McCain had said he would skip the debate if a $700 billion rescue of the US financial industry is not settled.
"The McCain campaign is resuming all activities and the senator will travel to the debate this afternoon," the statement said.
He will come back to Washington after the event and return to the negotiations.
Debate sponsors had said the show would go on with or without Mr McCain, and Mr Obama had said he would be at the University of Mississippi whether Mr McCain goes or not.
Mr McCain said on Wednesday he was "suspending" his campaign to return to Washington for the negotiations. But he gave a speech in New York yesterday, continued airing ads and sent his vice presidential nominee, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, and surrogates out on the campaign trail.
At the invitation of President George W Bush, Mr Obama joined Mr McCain and Mr Bush in a White House meeting with congressional leaders yesterday afternoon but the McCain campaign said the meeting "devolved into a contentious shouting match."
Mr Obama said Mr McCain's decision to return to Washington and participate in the bailout negotiations had injected a sour dose of presidential politics into the proceedings.
"It's not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be," he told reporters after the White House meeting. "There was a lot of glare, the spotlight, there's the potential for posturing or suspicions."
The potential no-show by Mr McCain unsettled organisers at the National Commission on Debates and the hosts at the University of Mississippi, which spent about $5 million to accommodate the event and the 3,000 journalists who descended on Oxford to cover it.
The first debate is expected to be watched by far more than the 40 million Americans who saw the convention acceptance speeches of Mr McCain and Mr Obama, and could be a crucial factor for undecided voters in the November 4th election.
Public opinion polls have shown Mr Obama making gains over the past week on the question of who could best lead the country on economic issues, and most polls have him holding a slight lead over Mr McCain.
The debate is scheduled to focus on foreign policy and national security, although the turmoil on Wall Street has dominated the campaign trail for nearly two weeks and is almost certain to be featured.
Both camps have worked to lower expectations for their candidates in the high-stakes confrontation.
Obama aides have noted that national security and foreign policy is a strength for Mr McCain, a 26-year veteran of Congress and a former prisoner of war in Vietnam. Opinion polls show voters favour Mr McCain on security issues.