Chicago: John McCain's presidential campaign claimed credit as Congress readied today to vote on an emergency economic package, but Democrats said the Republican's last-ditch intervention had been no help.

Mitt Romney, McCain's erstwhile rival for the Republican nomination, said the deal on a Wall Street bailout worth up to USD 700 billion would never have happened without the Arizona senator.

Speaking on NBC television, the former Massachusetts governor said "this bill would not have been agreed to had it not been for John McCain."

"That doesn't mean that he's the only guy doing that. And there many people, who have been critical to it," Romney said.

"But, you know, this is a bipartisan accomplishment, a bipartisan success.

And if people want to get something done in Washington, they just watch John McCain," he said.

"He's been the guy whose name is at the top of major pieces of legislation for a long time."

Both McCain and his Democratic rival in the November 4 election, Barack Obama, said they would reluctantly sign up to a drastically reworked deal permitting the Treasury to buy up sour mortgage-backed assets.

A vote in the House of Representatives, where Republican opposition to the bailout has been strongest, was due today. The Senate, where both McCain and Obama sit, was not expected to take up the measure until Wednesday.

Obama yesterday said McCain's response to the Wall Street crisis had been "Katrina-like," evoking the US government's bungled handling of the hurricane that drowned New Orleans in 2005.
Source : PTI