WASHINGTON, Sept 30: Republicans are using scare tactics to garner votes in two key battleground states, Democrats charged Thursday, alleging that GOP campaign literature warns of a "ban on the Bible" if John Kerry is elected president.

"If ever there were one book that should never be used for political gain, if ever there were one book that should never be the subject of lies and deception, it is the Bible," West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd said on the floor of Senate.

"Yet that is exactly what is happening today," Byrd said, holding up an example of the campaign flyer that he said has been mailed en masse to citizens in his state.

"Two weeks ago, the Republican National Committee sent a mass mailing to West Virginians suggesting that liberals - in other words, everyone but Republicans - are out to ban the Bible," he said.

"Can you imagine? Ban the Bible? It is a flat-out, no-doubt-about-it, silly, sophomoric charge," Byrd continued, calling on US President George W. Bush- to denounce the pamphlet.

"The Republican National Committee is spreading this tripe to smear Democrats, and the president ought to demand that the Republican National Committee apologize to the people of West Virginia," Byrd said.

Blanche Lincoln, a Democratic senator from Arkansas, said on the floor of the chamber that the mass mailing of a similar pamphlet to residents of her Bible Belt state proved that Republicans had reached the "absolute bottom" in their efforts to win votes. -AFP