Key Republican presidential contest opens in Florida

Florida voted in its key Republican presidential nominating contest Tuesday, with top contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney tightly matched and ex-New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani's campaign hanging in the balance.

Polls opened at 7:00 am (1200 GMT) in the primary election, in which Florida will provide 57 delegates -- the highest number to date -- to the September convention that will pick the party's presidential candidate.

It will also give the winner strong momentum ahead of next week's "Super Tuesday" when voting will be held in 22 states.

With Giuliani and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee sidelined in opinion polls, McCain and Romney hit out at each other ahead of the primary on the economy and the Iraq war, two major issues for voters.

Senator Hillary Clinton was the clear favorite here ahead of a Democratic primary that could give her a symbolic boost -- but little else, since the national party stripped Florida of delegates after the state broke the rules by changing the date of its vote.

But she suffered a stinging blow on Monday as her rival Barack Obama won the endorsement of influential Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, the last surviving brother of assassinated president John F. Kennedy.

Under an agreement with their party, the Democratic candidates stayed away from Florida, but the Republican contenders were out in force.

A Zogby poll on Monday put McCain's support at 33 percent and Romney's at 30 percent. Giuliani, who largely ignored voting in other states to stake his campaign on Florida, had 13 percent, two points ahead of Huckabee.

Romney, a venture capitalist with a reputation for turning around ailing companies, touted his economic credentials and pointed to what he called McCain's "lack of understanding of our economy."

"I frankly can't imagine how you can have a president of the United States who doesn't understand the economy," Romney told reporters.

McCain's camp shot back, accusing the former governor of flip-flopping on just about every major issue.

He also reiterated the claim his rival had sought a timetable for a withdrawal from Iraq, something Romney denies.

"If we had done what Governor Romney suggested, Al-Qaeda would be celebrating a great victory today," McCain, who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, told the Fox News network.

He said he was confident of support from conservative Republicans due to his tough stance on fighting extremists, despite Romney branding him as too liberal on social issues such as immigration.

"I'm confident that we are going to do well tomorrow," he said told CNN news Monday. "Although I think it will be close."

McCain got a big lift over the past days with endorsements from Florida's highly popular Governor Charlie Crist and Senator Mel Martinez, who has strong clout among the large Cuban-American community.

Around a million Florida voters had already cast early and absentee ballots.

On the Democratic side, a Florida victory would give Clinton a badly needed boost after Obama, a senator from Illinois, trounced her in South Carolina on Saturday.

The former first lady insisted on Sunday the Democratic vote will not be ignored -- even though the national party said it won't count in Florida.

The New York senator has said she wanted the delegations from Florida and Michigan -- which was punished in a similar way -- to be seated at the convention that will nominate the Democratic candidate.

The southeastern state was the decider in the 2000 election, in which George W. Bush was handed victory after five weeks of chaos, recounts and legal battles.

The move clashed with national party rules in both camps. The Republicans also punished Florida, stripping the state of half its 114 delegates to the national convention.