Bin Laden hoopla draws Romney fire

New York : Republican Mitt Romney said yesterday that it was "totally appropriate" for President Barack Obama to claim credit for taking out Osama Bin Laden a year ago but that his decision to politicise a unifying event for the country was not.

Obama's re-election campaign has used his decision to order the US military raid that ended with the 9/11 mastermind's death to suggest that Romney would not have made the same call. Romney, the president's all-but-certain Republican challenger in the autumn election, says he would have made the same decision.

The two candidates are nearly even in most polls ahead of the November elections and as Romney has solidified his status as the challenger, the two men have been taking direct aim at each other in a series of speeches and campaign advertisements.

Marking the anniversary at a New York City fire house that lost 11 men on September 11, 2001, Romney said he understood the president's desire to take credit for killing one of the world's most-wanted men.

"It's totally appropriate for the president to express to the American people the view that he has that he had an important role in taking out Osama Bin Laden," Romney said after visiting the lower Manhattan fire station with Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor when terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center's twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people.

"I think politicising it and trying to draw a distinction between himself and myself was an inappropriate use of the very important event that brought America together," Romney said.

For his part, Obama marked the occasion by putting the power of incumbency on display. He flew unannounced to Afghanistan to sign an agreement cementing the US commitment to that country after the unpopular war there ends. His predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, sent in troops shortly after 9/11 to eradicate Taliban and Al Qaida forces.

Obama was set to address US audiences from Afghanistan at 7pm before returning to Washington.

Obama ordered the Navy SEAL raid on Bin Laden's hideout deep in Pakistan one year ago. Over the weekend, Robert Gibbs, formerly Obama's spokesman and now a top campaign official, said it was unclear whether Romney would have ordered the killing of Bin Laden.

"I think trying to attack me on that basis is inappropriate and the wrong course," Romney said.

He made the comments shortly after the Obama camp released a television advertisement accusing Romney of sending US jobs overseas and keeping his money in Swiss accounts.

The Obama advert is partly in response to one released last week by the conservative political group Americans for Prosperity, which suggests money from Obama's $814 billion (Dh2,990 billion) economic stimulus package went to overseas green-energy companies. Congress passed Obama's massive spending measure in hopes of pulling the US economy out of the worst downturn since the 1930s Great Depression.

The economy is by far the biggest issue in the election, and Romney, who has seemingly locked up the nomination to challenge Obama in November, continues to attack the president on the issue.

The Obama campaign was spending about $780,000 to place the ad in battleground states Virginia, Ohio and Iowa. It accuses Romney of having "shipped American jobs to places like Mexico and China."