LOS ANGELES, Sept 11: As if the 2004 campaign for the presidency has not been dirty enough - get ready for a 700-page book by America's most famous tabloid biographer that alleges illegal drug use and other youthful misdeeds by President George W. Bush.

More than 700,000 copies of Kitty Kelley's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty" are set to hit bookstores on Tuesday with the 62-year-old Kelley launching into a series of television interviews starting on Monday with three days on NBC's "Today Show."

Despite sensational allegations and the heavy duty publicity accompanying the book, the mainstream US press has been reluctant to delve into the claims, partly because of doubts about Kelley's reporting and partly because the Republican party has labeled the book fiction. The White House spokesman has called it garbage.

The doorstop of a book comes out in the middle of a presidential campaign that has distinguished itself for mud-slinging with ugly charges about the Vietnam War service of both Democrat John Kerry and President Bush.

To have someone like Kelley weigh in with allegations that Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland, while his father was president can cause severe heartburn in editors concerned about campaign coverage being hijacked by sensationalism.

Kelley is famous for biographies that hold her subjects up to a harsh, unflattering light. Her works have included the life stories of Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Britain's Queen Elizabeth. Her most notorious biography was on Nancy Reagan in which she claimed that the former first lady had an affair with Sinatra behind locked doors in the White House.

That allegation was once front page news. Over the years, it has lost credence.

"The story of Kitty Kelley is not about accuracy but of attitude. She starts off hating the people she writes about and hates them all the way though," said Vanity Fair writer Bob Colacello, who for six years has been researching a book on President and Mrs Reagan, with the former first lady's help. It will be published in October.

"Kitty Kelley generally makes the assumption that negative rumors are true. And in Nancy Reagan's case, her totally negative portrayal missed the real woman. None of Nancy's close friends talked to her and she relied on uninformed sources," said Colacello.

"I asked Mrs Reagan about it (the alleged affair with Sinatra) and she said, 'Oh please, there was nothing.' Her daughter said the same thing. But Nancy Reagan is flirtatious and flirts with men in a totally harmless way. The idea of her cheating on Ronald Reagan is ridiculous," he said.

A key allegation in Kelley's book is that Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David in the 1980s, an allegation she says was confirmed by Sharon Bush, the ex-wife of the president's brother Neil.

"I categorically deny that I ever told Kitty Kelley that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David or that I saw him do it," Sharon Bush said through her Houston attorney, David Berg.

She said that on the one occasion she met Kelley - at an April 1, 2003 lunch set up by a former New York public relations consultant - Kelley mentioned drug use at Camp David and "I responded by saying something along the lines of: 'Who would say such a thing?'"

Lou Colasuonno, the consultant who was present during the four-hour lunch, said, "I haven't read the book and only know what I have seen reported in the media. But from what I have read and seen, Kitty's version is not inaccurate."

While Kelley has her critics, she also has supporters - including her publishers who say the book has been carefully fact-checked and "lawyered." One admirer described her as a woman who can "get a stone to talk."-Reuters