Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson yesterday ignited new controversy over President George Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq by claiming that Mr Bush told him just before the invasion: "Oh no, we're not going to have any casualties."
Mr Robertson, founder of the Christian Coalition and one of the few leading evangelists to criticise the war, said the assurance was given to him when he warned Mr Bush that there would be American casualties.
White House officials denied Mr Bush made the comment, which comes as an embarrassment to the president, whose campaign for re-election relies heavily on popular support for his war on terrorism.
Mr Robertson told CNN that God had told him that the war would be messy and a disaster but when he met Mr Bush in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 20th, 2003, the president did not listen to his advice, insisting that Saddam Hussein was an evil tyrant who needed to be removed.
"I mean, he was just sitting there, like 'I'm on top of the world', and I warned him about this war," Mr Robertson said.
"I had deep misgivings about this war . . . and I was trying to say, 'Mr President, you better prepare the American people for casualties'. 'Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties' (he replied). 'Well,' I said, 'it's the way it's going to be.' And so, it was messy. The Lord told me it was going to be (a) a disaster and (b) messy."
There have been 1,100 US fatalities in Iraq in the war. A Kerry campaign spokesman seized on the tele-evangelist's claim, asking: "Is Pat Robertson telling the truth . . . or is Pat Robertson lying?"
A spokeswoman for Mr Bush, Ms Karen Hughes, said his political adviser, Mr Karl Rove, sat in on the meeting and that Mr Bush never said there would not be casualties in Iraq.
Mr Robertson said in January that God told him Mr Bush would win re-election in a "blow-out". He told CNN he believed the president was blessed by God, "even if he stumbles and messes up", and would win a "razor-thin" majority.
A new poll by the Pew Research Centre in Washington showed how sensitive the issue is for Mr Bush. His approval rating in the fight against terrorism has dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since the September 11th, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington. The poll also showed Mr Bush and Mr Kerry level at 47 per cent each among likely voters.
In Pittsburgh on Wednesday, Mr Kerry accused the Bush campaign of stirring up terror to scare Americans. During partisan exchanges, the Massachusetts senator said Mr Bush's disdain for allies had made America less secure and he accused the president of using the threat of terror to "scare Americans". Mr Bush said Mr Kerry could not lead the nation to a decisive victory if he did not see the "true dangers" of a post-September 11th world and accused him of insulting coalition countries by calling them "the coerced and the bribed".
The shortage of flu shots in the US is also causing problems for the Bush campaign. Long lines of elderly people formed in Pittsburgh and other US cities in the last few days as supplies dwindled, following a contamination problem at the manufacturing plant in England.
Mr Bush has urged young healthy people not to seek an injection, but much publicity has been given to the fact that the Treasury Secretary, Mr John Snow, the Senate Majority leader, Mr Bill Frist, and the Vice President, Mr Dick Cheney, have had their shots. "Once again, the Bush administration proves that it is the 'do as we say, not as we do' White House," the Kerry campaign said.
With his heart condition, Mr Cheney fits the category of those most in need.
Mr Kerry yesterday travelled to Ohio where he went hunting for geese in semi-military camouflage gear to show rural voters he is not against the constitutional right to bear arms.
The National Rifle Association has backed Mr Bush and plans to spend $20 million to oppose Mr Kerry for his vote to ban automatic weapons.
The widow of paralysed Superman actor Christopher Reeve, Ms Dana Reeve, planned to join Mr Kerry later in Columbus, Ohio to promote the Democrat's support for federally-funded embryonic stem cell research, which Mr Bush opposes.
The president yesterday had his sights on Catholic voters, travelling to Downingtown, Pennsylvania to speak about his opposition to gay marriage and to meet the Archbishop of Philadelphia.
Catholics in the US are split on whether to withhold support for Mr Kerry over his backing for abortion rights.
Archbishop Charles Chaput of Colorado has said a vote for Mr Kerry would be a sin but the Bishop of Pittsburgh, Dr Donald Wuerl, has stopped short of making it the defining issue on how Catholics should vote.
Dr Wuerl wrote that voting for candidates because they supported abortion rights would be "problematic" but if voting one's conscience for that candidate for other reasons, "that falls into another category".
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has reported that 50 priests and several hundred nuns and lay Catholics have signed an advertisement in the Pittsburgh Catholic, saying that some Catholic leaders do a disservice when they use a specific issue as a benchmark for Catholic identity and that voting decisions cannot be reduced to the single issue of abortion.