United States:Republican presidential frontrunner John McCain has strongly denied that he had an affair with a woman lobbyist, describing as untrue a New York Timesreport that he did political favours for the woman and her clients.
"I'm very disappointed in the article. It's not true," Mr McCain told reporters in Toledo, Ohio, as his wife Cindy stood next to him.
"I've served this nation honourably for more than half a century. At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust."
The New York Timesreported yesterday that before his 2000 presidential bid, Mr McCain and lobbyist Vicki Iseman were seen together so often that some of his staff believed their relationship was romantic. The paper said that senior aides warned Mr McCain that the appearance of impropriety could wreck his campaign and urged Ms Iseman to stay away.
Mr McCain said yesterday that Ms Iseman was a friend and she also denied that they were romantically involved. Mrs McCain said she did not believe the newspaper report.
"More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character," she said.
In 1999, Mr McCain wrote to regulators on behalf of one of Ms Iseman's clients in the telecommunications business and travelled on the firm's corporate jet. Mr McCain, who has made fighting corruption in Washington a hallmark political issue, said yesterday that accepting air travel was standard practice at the time and that his letters to regulators were aimed at speeding up a decision rather than determining it.
Rumours about the New York Timesstory have been circulating in Washington for months and some of Mr McCain's Republican rivals were hoping it would appear earlier in the campaign.
Mr McCain enjoys such a decisive lead over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee among the delegates who choose the Republican nominee that the story may have come too late to influence the race.
Mr Huckabee yesterday described Mr McCain as "a good, decent, honourable man" and said he believed his account of the events described in the New York Timesstory.
"I've campaigned now on the same stage or platform with John McCain for 14 months. I only know him to be a man of integrity. Today he denied any of that was true. I take him at his word. For me to get into it is completely immaterial," Mr Huckabee said.
An author of campaign finance legislation in 2002, Mr McCain has accused Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama of backsliding on a promise to accept federal campaign funds if he wins his party's nomination. Accepting federal funds would end private donations and limit spending on each side to about $85 million.
Mr McCain says he is ready to accept the spending limit but Mr Obama now says he wants to negotiate with the Republican nominee on details.
"I propose a meaningful agreement in good faith that results in real spending limits. The candidates will have to commit to discouraging cheating by their supporters; to refusing fundraising help to outside groups; and to limiting their own parties to legal forms of involvement. And the agreement may have to address the amounts that Senator McCain, the presumptive nominee of his party, will spend for the general election while the Democratic primary contest continues," Mr Obama wrote in USA Today.
