WASHINGTON, July 11: Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry and his newly-named running mate John Edwards on Sunday accused President George W. Bush of misleading America and abusing power in taking the nation to war in Iraq.

In a series of interviews capping a week of publicity around the naming of Edwards as the vice presidential nominee, the two seized on typically Republican rhetoric about American values, accusing Bush of lying to the nation.

"The value of truth is one of the most central values in America, and this administration has violated" it, Kerry told The Washington Post. "Their values system is distorted and not based on truth."

"How you feel about Iraq is a reflection of your values about how you go to war, about what's worth fighting for, about whether you were told the truth about what's involved. There's a value system that believes that America ought to work with other countries and put our best foot forward," he said.

Edwards questioned the sincerity of Bush's rhetoric on values. "George Bush and others can say whatever they want now about what their values are, but what have they spent their life doing? Have they shown in their life experience, not just in the time they've been in politics, but in their life experience, that they have the values that Americans looked up to and respected?" Edwards said.

The two were armed with a Senate report released on Friday, which said the US intelligence community "mischaracterized" Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war through "a series of failures," and its key judgments were either overstated or not backed up.

The report said the Senate investigation found no evidence that the Bush administration pressured CIA analysts to modify their judgments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

But Kerry drew a direct link to Bush's public remarks about ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons programmes and his supposed links to Al Qaeda. "He certainly misled America about nuclear involvement," Kerry told The New York Times of Bush's claims that Saddam was on course to develop a nuclear weapon.

"And he misled America about the types of weapons that were there, and he misled America about how he would go about using the authority he was given," Kerry said. Moreover, Bush had no plan for winning the peace, Kerry said. He insisted the administration had discarded professional military evaluations and turned its backs on the State Department's efforts.

"And they were wrong," Kerry said. "And soldiers lost their lives because they were wrong. And America's paying billions of dollars because they were wrong, and allies are not with us because they were wrong."

Kerry also pledged to reverse US policy that bans immigration by people with HIV. "I will work with Congress to lift the immigration ban on HIV- positive people that has prohibited the United States from hosting this lifesaving meeting," promised the senator.

Some 40 million people are afflicted with HIV worldwide, according to the United Nations. The United States tests all new immigrants for HIV, and a positive test is usually grounds for denying admission.

With only about 400,000 people in developing nations having access to treatment, Kerry said his strategy vis-a-vis the disease "starts with doubling US funding." Meanwhile, a new opinion poll by Newsweek magazine showed the Democratic ticket had widened its lead over the Republicans going into the November 2 presidential election.

The survey indicated that if elections were held today Kerry and running mate John Edwards, also a US senator, would get 51 percent of the vote versus 45 per cent for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. The numbers represent a five-point jump for the Democratic ticket since May. -AFP