Philadelphia: Democratic White House hopefuls fired a fusilade of attacks at front-runner Hillary Clinton yesterday, charging her of speeding a rush to war with Iran and blundering on Iraq.

Rivals also accused Clinton of political "doubletalk" and questioned her viability against a Republican rival in the 2008 general election, as the Democratic race hit new levels of intensity in the latest campaign debate.

Just 65 days before the first party nominating contest in Iowa, Barack Obama and John Edwards know they must trim Clinton's double-digit opinion poll lead, or see their White House dreams dissolve.

Edwards, the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, hammered Clinton for voting for a Senate measure branding Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group, which critics said may be used as a justification for war. "You give this president an inch, he will take a mile," Edwards said, and accused Clinton of political "doubletalk."

Clinton said her vote last month was intended to ramp up diplomatic pressure on Iran, in the hope it would renounce its nuclear program. "I am not in favour of this rush for war, but I'm also not in favour of doing nothing."

Senator Obama, struggling to match soaring expectations for his campaign, said Clinton, who voted in 2002 to authorize the invasion of Iraq, was not fit to be president, as one of the "co-authors" of the war. "She voted for a war, to authorize sending troops into Iraq, and then later said this was a war for diplomacy," he said. "That may be politically savvy, but I don't think that it offers the clear contrast that we need."

Source : PTI