American presidential candidate Barack Obama is preparing himself for a Republican campaign based on racially motivated adverts and images.

The slurs about Obama being the first black man to run for president have already found their way onto the television and campaign buttons across the US.

Jokes about his name being Hussein, the fact that he once wore a turban and a building that's called the White House but run by a black guy are being pumped out already.

Obama was criticised when he was pictured wearing a turban as part of a traditional outfit given to him in Africa

Though the election is more than four months away, the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain are shaping their strategies for dealing with such appeals.

The Obama campaign vows to fight back fiercely and fast, not repeating John Kerry's mistake of waiting to respond to the 2004 'Swift Boat' ads that Democrats saw as a smear of his military record.

McCain's camp is also on alert for attacks.

The McCain campaign promises to condemn any race-based political appeals.

But it also insists it won't stand still for false charges of racism or for allegations merely aimed at preventing criticism of Obama on legitimate issues.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a friend and adviser of McCain, said: 'Every word will be twisted to make it about race.'

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has promised to condemn any race-based political appeals

But the Republican vowed that if he and others confront Obama on issues such as national security and the economy it will have 'nothing to do with him being an African-American'.

Obama adviser David Axelrod said the Democrat's campaign will be on high alert for code words or innuendo meant to play on voters' racial sentiments.

'We're going to be aggressive about pushing back on anything that we feel is inappropriate or misleading,' he said.

'It's not enough for McCain to say he cannot control independent groups airing racially charged ads on his behalf.'

'We've seen this movie before,' he added. 'And we're not going to be passive in the face of those kinds of tactics.'

Racially charged criticism of Obama already has surfaced in several states.

Shortly before North Carolina's May 6 primary, the state Republican Party aired a TV ad linking Democratic candidates to Obama, who was described as 'too extreme' because of his ties to the retired Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

Obama eventually ended his relationship with Wright, his longtime pastor who had been criticized for sermons in which he cursed America and accused the government of conspiring against blacks.

The state party ignored McCain's repeated calls to kill the ad.

In South Dakota, a TV station briefly aired an ad that was edited to show Obama saying, 'we are no longer a Christian nation, we are also a Muslim nation.'

It omitted his saying, in the same speech, that the United States is not solely a Christian nation.

The ad, which included a photo of Obama wearing a turban as part of a traditional outfit given to him in Africa, concluded with a man saying: 'It's time for people of faith to stand against Barack Hussein Obama.'

A group called the Coalition Against Anti-Christian Rhetoric paid for the ad, which stations quickly dropped after the Obama campaign complained.

The Texas Republican Party recently cut ties with a vendor whose political buttons at a party convention included one saying: 'If Obama is president ... will we still call it The White House?'

Political professionals differ on how much racially tinged campaigning might emerge this summer and autumn.

Terry Holt, a Republican strategist who worked on President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, said Republicans know that McCain has no tolerance for such tactics.

For the McCain campaign, he said, 'it's not about what Obama looks like, it's about what he's going to act like.'

'I think we can have an honest and tough debate without race being a major factor,' Holt said.