ST LOUIS, Oct 9: President George Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry argued about Iraq, jobs and taxes in their second debate on Friday, with Mr Kerry questioning Mr Bush's judgement and the president accusing Kerry of crumbling under political pressure.

In a sometimes testy confrontation that featured a sharper and more aggressive Bush than in last week's debate, the White House rivals roamed the stage to battle over the decision to invade Iraq and accuse each other of misleading Americans.

"The world is more dangerous today because the president didn't make the right judgements," Mr Kerry said, adding Mr Bush "took his eye off the ball" in shifting his focus to Iraq while Iran and North Korea developed nuclear programs.

Mr Bush defended the invasion, attacked Mr Kerry's record and said the Massachusetts senator's willingness to shift in the political winds made him an unsuitable leader.

"I don't see how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty, if you change your mind because of politics," Bush said.

Kerry denied that he had changed his position on Iraq and said Bush was turning his campaign into a "weapon of mass deception."

"Let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat," he said.

"This president rushed to war, pushed our allies aside, and Iran now is more dangerous, and so is North Korea, with nuclear weapons. He took his eye off the ball, off of Osama bin Laden," Kerry said.

The encounter in St. Louis came amid growing momentum for Kerry, whose aggressive attacks put Bush on the defensive in the first debate and propelled him into a dead heat with the president in many polls.

Bush was more comfortable this time out, jabbing Kerry repeatedly and shifting easily among topics without falling back on lines from his stump speech.

Kerry said Bush was trying to "scare" Americans by labeling him a liberal who would raise taxes. Asked if he would pledge not to raise taxes on middle class Americans, Kerry looked into the camera and said: "I am not going to raise taxes. I have a tax cut."

Bush said Kerry was trying to deny his 20-year Senate record of voting for tax increases. "You can run but you can't hide," he said.

An angry Bush at one point cut off moderator Charles Gibson to upbraid Kerry for criticizing the size of the coalition backing the United States in Iraq, saying it denigrated allies like Britain and Poland.

Kerry responded that the number of US soldiers from Missouri alone serving in Iraq would constitute the third-largest bloc in the coalition, behind the United States and Britain. "That's not a grand coalition," he said.

TOWN HALL FORMAT: The debate was conducted in a town hall format, where the candidates perched on stools or moved around the stage to answer questions from an audience of undecided voters. They frequently turned and addressed each other.

"That answer almost made me want to scowl," Bush said at one point, poking fun at the adverse reaction to his facial expressions in the last debate.

The first two polls taken immediately after the debate gave a slight edge to Kerry.

At separate post-debate rallies, Kerry said he was "2 and 0" in debates and Bush said he was "fired up" for the stretch run to the election.

Kerry cited a lackluster jobs report on Friday as proof the economy was still weak under Bush. The economy added just 96,000 workers in September, well short of economic forecasts for 148,000 new hires.

Bush said the economy was adding jobs after bottoming out last year and warned Kerry would halt the economic recovery by raising taxes on middle class Americans.

He accused Kerry of voting to raise taxes 98 times, a charge disputed by Democrats, and said his proposals would add $2.2 trillion in new spending, another disputed charge. He also accused Kerry of being the Senate's most liberal member and warned the audience: "He's going to tax everybody here."

"He's got a record. He's been there 20 years," Bush said, adding at one point: "Show me one accomplishment on Medicare."

Kerry has pledged to end Bush's tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year and promised a package of tax breaks for middle-class Americans. "This president is just trying to scare everybody here ... throwing labels around," Kerry said. "Labels don't mean anything."

Bush said he blocked the import of prescription drugs from Canada because he wanted to be sure they were safe, but Kerry pointed out that Bush said four years ago in his debates with Al Gore that he would support such a move.

Bush brushed off the report earlier this week from weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, which found that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had not rebuilt his weapons of mass destruction program after the 1991 Gulf War.

"Saddam Hussein was a threat because he could have given weapons of mass destruction to terrorist enemies. Sanctions were not working. The United Nations was not effective at removing Saddam Hussein," Bush said.

Kerry said the goal of sanctions was not to remove Saddam, but to remove the weapons of mass destruction. Turning to Bush, he said: "Mr. President, just yesterday the Duelfer report told you and the whole world they worked. He didn't have weapons of mass destruction, Mr. President. That was the objective." -Reuters