US Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has accused the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, of associating with terrorists.
With the Republicans trailing in the polls a month before the presidential election, Mrs Palin said the time had come to take the gloves off.
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She cited a New York Times report that Mr Obama had had links with a former member of a 1960s militant group.
A Democratic spokesman accused the Republicans of gutter politics.
Speaking to supporters in Colorado and later in a Los Angeles suburb, Alaska Governor Palin attacked Senator Obama over his link to Bill Ayers, a founder of the militant group Weather Underground, that waged a violent campaign against the Vietnam War.
'Character attack'
The group was blamed for a number of bombings in the US in the 1960s.
Mrs Palin described Mr Obama as someone who saw the US "as being so imperfect... he is palling around with terrorists who would target their own country".
Mr Obama, who served on a charity board several years ago with Mr Ayers - now a professor at the University of Illinois - has denounced his radical activities.
Commentators say Mrs Palin's attack forms part of a broader Republican strategy to attack Mr Obama's character.
The Alaska governor also repeated her wish that the McCain campaign had not this week pulled out of the battleground state of Michigan, effectively conceding it to Mr Obama.
Mr Obama meanwhile attacked the healthcare plans of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.
Speaking to some 18,000 people at a rally in Virginia, Senator Obama described the Arizona senator's policy as "radical" and claimed 20 million people would be left out by it.
A spokesman for Mr McCain, who is in his home state preparing for Tuesday's second presidential debate, said that was "a bald-faced lie".
Healthcare is important to voters and the Obama campaign unveiled new campaign adverts attacking Mr McCain on the issue in every battleground state.
Mr Obama's Virginia rally came ahead of a Monday deadline for voters to register there and in more than a dozen other states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Florida.
Voter turnout could be vital in deciding the outcome of the 4 November presidential election.
Meanwhile, viewing figures show a record 69.9m people tuned in to watch Mrs Palin take part in Thursday's televised vice-presidential debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
(BBC)
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