Clinton rallies the troops

Bill Clinton proved he was still the Democrats' star draw as he opened the party's convention with a call to arms to send John Kerry to the White House.

Mr Clinton used his speech to the party faithful to accuse President Bush of botching both the economy and the war on terror.

"Strength and wisdom are not opposing values," the former president said of the man who followed him into office. He said Republicans "need a divided America, but we don't".

Eager to draw attention to Mr Kerry's military record, Mr Clinton said the Yale graduate could easily have stayed out of the Vietnam War. The former president said he, Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney all did so, but not Kerry: "He said, send me."

The party's 44th national convention, which will officially nominate Massachusetts senator Mr Kerry for the November election, opened yesterday under extraordinarily tight security as Kerry campaigned in Florida.

In a battleground state he has visited more than half a dozen times this year, he urged Republicans and independents to "stop and think" before casting their votes.

The rally featured a parade of party elders, including former president Jimmy Carter and former vice-president Al Gore, designed to present Mr Kerry as a man ready to serve as commander-in-chief - and to portray George W Bush as a failed president.

But it was Mr Clinton and his New York senator wife Hillary who drew the biggest cheers.

Mrs Clinton, mooted as a possible presidential contender herself in 2008, told the delegates that her Senate colleague "will lead the world, not alienate it. Lower the deficit, not raise it. Create good jobs, not lose them. Solve a health care crisis, not ignore it".

The pre-convention polls show Kerry tied or slightly ahead of Bush, although the same surveys show the president with a clear advantage over his handling of the war on terror.