Washington: US Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry has picked Senator John Edwards, who was his rival in the primaries, as his running mate for the office of the Vice President. 51-year-old Edwards, who hails from North Carolina in South, is more eloquent than Kerry, who is from Massachuetts in North.

Kerry, who is expected to announce the decision himself later, had actively considered around 25 candidates before selecting Edwards, NBC TV reported.

Edwards will be an asset to him in mobilising more Southern votes than he would otherwise get.

At one time the South was solidly Democratic. Now it is divided between Republicans and Democrats, just as in the North, Midwest and West.

Many Southerners shifted their loyalty to the Republicans in protest against former President Lyndon Johnson's decision to end segregation of Blacks and using his enormous persuasive power to steer the Civil Rights legislation through Congress.

Ironically, the man who abolished slavery and fought the Civil War against the Southern segregationists was President Abraham Lincoln, who founded the Republican Party.