Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will leave the presidential campaign trail to visit his 85-year-old grandmother in Hawaii after her health deteriorated in recent weeks, an aide has said.
With two weeks left in the battle for the White House, Mr Obama will hold a campaign event in Indianapolis on Thursday and then fly to Hawaii to see his grandmother before returning to campaigning on Saturday, aide Robert Gibbs said.
"Senator Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has always been one of the most important people in his life," Mr Gibbs said in a statement. "Along with his mother and his grandfather, she raised him in Hawaii from the time he was born until the moment he left for college."
The campaign interruption comes as both candidates head into a final sprint for the November 4th election.
Mr Obama criticised Republican rival John McCain for a "say-anything, do-anything" political style as he began a two-day tour to kick off early voting in Florida.
Mr McCain told supporters in Missouri that "nothing is inevitable" and he could still beat Mr Obama, who leads in national opinion polls as the pair began a frenzied race to the finish line.
Mr Obama's former Democratic rival, New York senator Hillary Clinton, joined the Illinois senator at a rally of 50,000 people in Orlando.
"In the final days of campaigns, the say-anything, do-anything politics too often takes over," Mr Obama said. "We've seen it before. Hillary has been subject to it before.
"We're seeing again today - ugly phone calls, misleading mail and TV ads, careless, outrageous statements - all aimed at keeping us from working together, all aimed at stopping change," he said.
The Illinois senator noted Mr McCain's running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, told reporters on Sunday that if she called the shots she would end the automated phone calls being made by McCain's campaign, including some that link Mr Obama with 1960s radical Bill Ayers.
"You have to work really hard to violate Gov. Palin's standards on negative campaigning," Mr Obama said.
But Mr McCain defended the calls, shrugging off Ms Palin's remarks.
"Well, Sarah is a maverick," McCain told CBS's Early Show. "That robocall is absolutely accurate and by the way, Senator Obama's campaign is running robocalls as we speak."
Mr Obama has opened an eight-point lead over his Republican rival, according to a Reuters/C-Span/Zogby poll released today.
Mr Obama leads Mr McCain 50 per cent to 42 per cent among likely US voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, up from a six-point advantage for Obama on Monday. The telephone poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
The Illinois senator, expanded his lead among two key swing groups. His advantage with independent voters grew from 11 to 15 points, and his edge with women voters grew from eight to 13 points.
Mr Obama also took a lead among voters above the age of 70 and expanded his lead among Hispanics and Catholics. His support among Republicans grew from 9 per cent to 12 per cent a day after he received the endorsement of Republican former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Reuters