It's the economy stupid ... Obama highlights fuel prices as he links McCain to Bush

The Democratic presidential candidate launched a two-week economic tour Monday that will take him to key battleground states in the November election.

Obama wants to shift the focus to the economy rather than national security and foreign policy issues which are the Republican candidate John McCain's stronger suit.

Polls show that the weak U.S. economy has surpassed the Iraq war as the key concern for voters.

Fuel worries: Mr Obamaputs on his jacket before he boards the plane at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina

In his first speech since Democratic rival Hillary Clinton suspended her bid for the White House, Obama tried to win over her working class constituency, focusing on home mortgage foreclosures, energy costs and growing unemployment.

He spoke in North Carolina, where the working class has been hard hit, but it is an issue that could reverberate across the electorate nationally.

North Carolina is not a state ordinarily pursued by Democratic presidential nominees. But it gave Mr Obama a crucial victory in his primary battle against Clinton, and he hopes to put it in play this fall - or at least force McCain to spend time and money here.

The centerpiece of McCain's economic plan "amounts to a full-throated endorsement of George Bush's policies," Obama told about 900 people in Raleigh.

He took part of his speech from headlines across the United States, noting that the average price of gas had just hit $4 a gallon for the first time, far below prices in Europe and elsewhere, but a shock to Americans used to cheap gas.

Repeatedly linking McCain to Bush, Obama said, 'our president sacrificed investments in health care, and education, and energy, and infrastructure on the altar of tax breaks for big corporations and wealthy CEOs'.

Obama criticized McCain for originally opposing Bush's first-term tax cuts but now supporting their continuation. He said he would place a windfall profits tax on oil companies while McCain would reduce their taxes.

Obama offered no new policies in his speech. He used the occasion to summarize earlier proposals, including raising income taxes on wealthy Americans, granting a £500 tax cut to most others, winding down the Iraq war, tightening credit card regulations and pumping more money into education, alternative fuels and infrastructure such as roads and bridges.

Even before Obama spoke, Mr McCain issued a statement through his spokesman that said his Democratic rival 'has promised higher income taxes, social Security taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes and tax hikes on job-creating businesses'.

He added: 'Barack Obama doesn't understand the American economy, and that's change we just can't afford.'