WASHINGTON, USA - REPUBLICAN John McCain targeted disappointed supporters of Democrat Hillary Clinton on Saturday with high profile help from Ms Carly Fiorina, an adviser and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive who has been called one of the most powerful women in the United States.

Mr McCain, an Arizona senator who has wrapped up his party's White House nomination, makes no secret of his wish to attract women who backed New York Sen Clinton's presidential bid, regularly praising her and noting their work and travel together as members of the Senate.

But the direct use of Ms Fiorina, a top economic adviser and head of a Republican get-out-the-vote effort, reflects a belief by the Mr McCain camp that they can secure a number of independent and Democratic Clinton supporters, some of whom say they will not back the presumptive nominee Illinois Sen Barack Obama.

Speaking at a 'virtual town hall meeting' that allowed for questions by telephone from listeners across the country, Ms Fiorina empathized with the former first lady's experience.

'Having started as a secretary and eventually become a chief-executive officer, I not only have great admiration and respect for Hillary Clinton and her candidacy and her leadership, but I also have great empathy, I must tell you, for what she went through,' Ms Fiorina said.

'I also believe though, if we are striving for a gender-blind, color-blind society, that we really ought to be focused on the person that we think will make the right judgments, the right decisions and have the right positions.' That person is Mr John McCain, she said.

Ms Fiorina has become an increasingly visible advocate for the Arizona senator, speaking publicly about his economic positions and ripping into Mr Obama over tax policies and Iraq.

'She usually tells me what to say,' Mr McCain quipped about Ms Fiorina on Saturday, after telling listeners he had come up with his 'reform, prosperity and peace' theme on his own during an interview.

Growing visibility
In a sign of her growing visibility, Mr Obama singled her out on Saturday, accusing her of mischaracterising his tax plans.

'Carly Fiorina was on the television the other day saying Barack Obama will not cut taxes for anybody,' he said in Wayne, Pennsylvania, adding his proposals would give every middle class family a US$1,000 (S$1,367) tax cut.

Mr McCain went on to praise Mrs Clinton during his campaign event and promised to increase the number of women in government as president.

'I have, time after time, urged my party look, we have a lot of women who are more than qualified, more than capable of governing this country,' he said, citing Ms Fiorina, former eBay chief executive Meg Whitman, and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as role models.

'At the end of my first term, you will see a dramatic increase of women in every part of the government of my administration,' he said to applause.

Mr McCain has shown some similarities with Mrs Clinton on the campaign trail. Both support lifting a tax on gasoline this summer, and have repudiated economists for panning it.

Mr Obama also panned it, and some observers said the proposal hurt the New York senator.

But Mr McCain was quick to point out political differences with Mrs Clinton, saying he thought the Supreme Court decision in 'Roe vs Wade' on abortion was a bad one.

Mrs Clinton has backed Mr Obama and urged her supporters to do the same.