John McCain's campaign returned to the fray yesterday by repeating charges that Barack Obama is a terrorist's friend just hours after the Republican nominee himself had ignored the issue throughout a 90 minute televised debate with his rival.

Their primetime showdown on Tuesday night was overshadowed by the darkening economic clouds and left Mr Obama largely unscathed as the clock begins to run down on Mr McCain's efforts to change the trajectory of the race.

The Democratic nominee had been braced for further personal attacks of the kind pursued most aggressively by Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, this week.

But Mr McCain made no mention of Bill Ayers, a 1960s-era activist who once bombed government targets and is a Chicago neighbour of Mr Obama. Nor did he raise the Democrat's links to the convicted Chicago fraudster Tony Rezko or his pastor, the Rev Jeremiah Wright.

Instead, their clashes were confined to economic and foreign policy. Mr McCain tried to portray his rival as a tax-and-spend liberal, too inexperienced to be trusted with the Oval office in times of such turmoil, saying: “Times are tough. We need a steady hand at the tiller.”

Mr Obama repeatedly linked Mr McCain to President Bush, a central plank of his campaign, and decried his rival’s longtime support for the deregulation of Wall Street.

He bristled at the suggestion that he “does not understand” foreign policy, saying: “Senator McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears and, you know, I’m just spouting off.” He then added: “This is the guy who sang ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran', who called for the annihilation of North Korea."

In a moment that perhaps reflected a personal level of animus toward Mr Obama, as well as mounting frustration with the direction of the election, the Republican - talking about a Senate vote the Democrat cast on an energy Bill - jabbed his finger at his rival and referred to him derisively as “that one”.

Mr McCain began the debate by offering his own $300 billion plan for fixing mortgage problems, but spent much of the final 30 minutes clenching his jaw angrily. He left immediately afterwards while Mr Obama lingered signing autographs and chatting with member of the audience.

But yesterday morning, the Republican's campaign was back on the attack, releasing a statement from John Murtagh, the son of a former judge whose home was firebombed by Mr Ayers's Weather Underground organisation in 1970, saying: "Barack Obama’s friend tried to kill my family."

He added: "Barack Obama now denies he was even aware of his friend’s violent past when, in 1995, Ayers hosted a party launching Obama’s political career. Given Ayers’s celebrity status among the left, it’s difficult to believe. The question remains: what did Obama know, and when did he know it?" Mr Ayers is now a college professor in Chicago. Mrs Palin has repeatedly faulted Mr Obama for serving on two nonprofit groups' boards with him.

Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, used a speech in Florida to paint Mr McCain as "an angry man, lurching from one position to another" while seeing "the presidency slipping from his grasp".

He pointed out there was not a single question from voters in Tuesday's tow hall-style debate about the “ugly inferences” and personal attacks against Mr Obama, suggesting that was not what the American people wanted to hear.

In an earlier TV interview, he suggested the way Republicans were "injecting fear and loathing into this campaign is mildly dangerous" adding: "It's just malarkey, flat malarkey."

Mr Obama, speaking in Indianapolis yesterday, was also dismissive of his rival's debate performance. "All we heard from Senator McCain was more of the same Bush economics that led us to this point," he said, "I can take four more weeks of John McCain’s attacks, but the American people can’t take four more years of John McCain’s Bush policies.”

At one stage, when he began a sentence with the phrase "if I am President" the crowd interrupted him with shouts of "when". Mr Obama smiled and replied: "No, no, no, I'm superstitious."

Mr McCain and Mrs Palin were making joint appearances in the key states of Pennsylvania and Ohio yesterday. Polls show Mr Obama has a solid lead both nationally and in a clutch of battleground states. Snapshot surveys on Tuesday night suggested the Democrat had won the debate.

A growing number of Republicans believe Mr McCain should reintroduce the controversial figure of Jeremiah Wright, Mr Obama’s former pastor, back into the campaign. Unlike Mr Ayers - whose relationship with Mr Obama is tenuous - Mr Wright was a central figure in the Illinois senator’s life for nearly two decades.

Earlier this year, Mr McCain declared that such mud-slinging tactics would be off limits. Yet with the race slipping form his grasp, some aides are urging the Republican to reverse that earlier pledge, and Mrs Palin said on Monday she believed it was a legitimate issue.

Steve Schmidt, Mr McCain’s chief strategist, told The Times that the subject of Reverend Wright was something that “millions of Americans” had opinions about. Yet he said it would be a decision for Mr McCain whether the campaign made it a major issue.

But there is suspicion in some quarters that Mr McCain may be uneasy with the tone of his own campaign. Yesterday a spokesman condemned William Platt, the head of the local Republican party in Pennsylvania, who warmed up the crowd for the nominee at a rally in Bethlehem by twice referring to Mr Obama's middle name of Hussein. Any effort to reinforce false rumours that the Democrat is a secret Muslim is, said Mr McCain's aide, "inappropriate".

— Knoxville The son of a Democratic politician in Tennessee has denied hacking into the e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

David Kernell, 20, an economics student at the University of Tennessee, entered the plea at a court in Knoxville. He was released without bail but was forbidden from owning a computer. A trial date of December 16 was set. Prosecutors allege that Mr Kernell put some of Mrs Palin’s e-mails on to a public website.

Mike Kernell, his father, and chairman of the state’s house government operations committee, has denied any involvement with the alleged hacking. (AP)

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