NEW YORK, Feb 24: Consumer rights advocate Ralph Nader announced on Sunday that he is launching a third-party campaign to become the next president of the United States.

Mr Nader made the announcement on NBC’s “Meet the Press”. He maintained that most Americans are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties, and that none of the presidential contenders were addressing ways to stem corporate crime and Pentagon waste and promote labour rights.

Mr Nader also ran as a third-party candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. He is still loathed by many Democrats who call him a spoiler and claim his candidacy in 2000 cost the party the election by siphoning votes away from Al Gore in a razor-thin contest in Florida.

Mr Nader came down hard on democratic front-runner Barack Obama over his discarding the Palestinian cause which he had espoused before entering the presidential race.

He accused Obama of having changed radically supporting Israel as against Palestinians who were being killed by Israeli army 300 to 1.