WASHINGTON, March 3: John Kerry captured the Democratic nomination to challenge US President George Bush in November, scoring a string of coast-to-coast wins on Tuesday that knocked rival John Edwards out of the race.

John Kerry, who received a call of congratulations from President Bush, quickly turned his focus to the general election and said he was "a fighter" who would challenge the president on a range of issues.

"Tonight the message could not be clearer, all across our country, change is coming to America," Mr Kerry told supporters in Washington. "With one united Democratic Party, we can and we will win this election."

The Massachusetts senator continued his domination of the Democratic race on its biggest night of voting, scoring wins in nine states, including Georgia, Minnesota and Ohio, which had been targeted by Mr Edwards.

The wins capped a political resurrection for John Kerry, whose campaign was considered dead just two months ago, but charged back to life as Democrats began to evaluate which candidate stood the best chance to beat Mr Bush in November.

Mr Kerry and the US president now embark on what promises to be a hard-fought, eight-month general election campaign. Mr Bush, who trails Mr Kerry in some opinion polls, launches his first television ads in 17 battleground states on Thursday as he starts to spend a more than 100 million dollars campaign war chest. Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said the president called Mr Kerry to congratulate him on "an impressive victory". -Reuters