White House hopefuls John McCain and Barack Obama have squared off in their second presidential debate in the US, with neither able to land a killer blow.
But most polls gave the contest to Obama, who's remained firm on his priorities to make the US free from foreign energy dependence, and to fix the troubled health and financial systems.
Responding to a question on national security, Obama repeated an earlier commitment that he would "take Osama bin Laden out" if he knew where in Pakistan he was.
"If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out.
"We will kill bin Laden. We will crush al-Qaeda, that has to be our biggest national security priority."
In reponse, McCain claimed Obama had "announced that he will attack Pakistan".
Quoting Teddy Roosevelt, McCain said the commander-in-chief should "talk softly, but carry a big stick".
"Senator Obama likes to talk aloud," he said.
"We need to get them [Pakistan] to work with us and turn against the Taliban and others."
Cooperation would occur only "by coordinating our efforts together, not threatening to attack them," added McCain.
"I am not going to telegraph my punches, which is what (Obama) did."
In response, Obama pointed out that his rival had once sang a ditty at a campaign meeting with the words "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" and charged that the Republican had also "called for the annihilation of North Korea."
"That is not an example of speaking softly," said Obama.
McCain offered one surprise, a new 300 billion US-dollar plan to buy up bad American mortgages, which helped to tip the global economy into crisis.
"As president of the United States, I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the new value of those homes, at the diminished value of those homes," he said.
"Is it expensive? Yes," he said. "But we all know, my friends, that until we stabilise home values in America, we're never going to start turning around and creating jobs and fixing our economy.
"We've got to give some trust and confidence back to America. I know how to do that, my friends, and it's my proposal.
"It's not Senator Obama's proposal. It's not President Bush's proposal. I know how to get America working again."
The proposal has been seen as a bid by McCain to twist Obama's advantage on the economy in his favour, but has failed to impress Americans with US television snap polls all awarding Obama the victor.
