Washington: Republican White House hopeful John McCain has nearly 27 million dollars in hand for his presidential campaign, after stacking up his best fundraising month yet in June, his campaign said.

Campaign manager Rick Davis told reporters yesterday that the combined McCain war chest and the Republican National Committee financial fund ahead of November s election had now hit 95 million dollars.

Democratic White House candidate Barack Obama, who has smashed fundraising records with a grassroots army of contributors throughout the 2008 election cycle, has yet to report his fundraising numbers for June.

"Campaign fundraising has continued to be strong through the month of June," Davis said on a conference call, announcing a figure of 26.7 million dollars in McCain's coffers after he raised about 22 million dollars over the month.

McCain has already said that he will accept public financing for his campaign, which caps his spending between the Republican convention in early September and the general election at 85 million dollars.

Last month, Obama renounced his earlier pledge to accept public financing for the general election so will not have any limits imposed on his campaign spending.

Obama has raised a record-shattering 287 million dollars since the start of the primary campaign, fueled partly by more than 1.5 million small donors who give repeatedly over the Internet. With June's figures included, McCain has collected nearly 140 million dollars.

Source : PTI