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UNITED STATES:THE PRESIDENTIAL candidates were on stage together for just a moment, but John McCain and Barack Obama offered an arresting contrast on Saturday night, both stylistically and on sensitive issues, most sharply on abortion.

In the two-hour forum at Orange County's Saddleback church, Mr Obama told pastor Rick Warren that it was "above his pay grade" to define when a baby gets human rights, while Mr McCain quickly answered: "At the moment of conception." The Republican candidate from Arizona had the easier task in the back-to-back interviews before about 2,800 members of the evangelical church in Lake Forest. He drew frequent applause with answers intended to reinforce his conservative credentials.