US:REPUBLICANS HAVE accused Barack Obama of making his most dramatic flip-flop yet after the Democratic presidential candidate said he would "continue to refine" his position on a 16-month timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq after he visits the region, wriets Denis Stauntonin Washington
"My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I've said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe and my guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable," Mr Obama said in North Dakota on Thursday. "And I'm going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold."
He later insisted that his remarks did not represent a policy shift but Republican John McCain's campaign said the Democrat had abandoned one of the central proposals of his campaign.
Mr McCain's spokesman, Brian Rogers, said: "Since announcing his campaign in 2007, the central premise of Barack Obama's candidacy was his commitment to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq immediately.
"Today, Barack Obama reversed that position, proving once again that his words do not matter. He has now adopted John McCain's position that we cannot risk the progress we have made in Iraq by beginning to withdraw our troops immediately without concern for conditions on the ground.
"There is nothing wrong with changing your mind when the facts on the ground dictate it. Indeed, the facts have changed because of the success of the surge that John McCain advocated for years and Barack Obama opposed in a position that put politics ahead of country."
Mr Obama, who has faced criticism from some liberal supporters for his sharp move towards the political centre in recent weeks, said his remarks in North Dakota were not intended to give himself room for manoeuvre on Iraq.
"Let me be as clear as I can be: I intend to end this war," he said. "My first day in office, I will bring the joint chiefs of staff in and I will give them a new mission. That is to end this war, responsibly, deliberately but decisively."
In an interview with a Christian magazine this week, Mr Obama has refined his position on abortion rights, saying "mental distress" should not qualify as a justification for late-term abortions.
Most abortion rights groups believe that mental health issues must be taken into account when considering the effect continuing a pregnancy could have on a mother but Mr Obama said he disagreed.
"Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term," he told the magazine Relevant.
Mr Obama's spokesman Tommy Vietor said the candidate continued to believe that the health and life of a mother should be taken into account in restricting abortion. "Obviously, as he stated in the interview, he has consistently believed those exceptions should be clear and limited enough to ensure that they don't undermine the prohibition on late-term abortions," he said.