MIAMI (AP) – In the closing hours of their bitter campaign, President George W Bush and challenger Senator John Kerry charged through the critical battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio yesterday, going from hushed church services to raucous campaign rallies in search of last-minute support with promises to keep America safe.

Kerry said he would undertake an unprecedented “flurry of activity” to protect national security that would include quick

Cabinet appointments. “I’m going to make America safer and I have some very strong and real steps to take quite immediately to make that happen,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Bush emphasised a similar theme. “If you believe America should fight the war on terror with all her might and lead with unwavering confidence,” the president said, “I ask you, come stand by me.

“If you are a Democrat who believes your party has turned too far left in this year, I ask you, come stand with me,” Bush said.

Strategists on both sides said tomorrow’s election likely will hinge on which party is successful in getting their voters to the polls after two vastly different and costly campaigns to increase turnout. In the pivotal state of Wisconsin, Republicans questioned more than 37,000 addresses of registrants in heavily Democratic Milwaukee.

Kerry senior advisor Mike McCurry said the Democratic campaign was no longer concerned with generating big turnouts at rallies, but was focused instead on having Kerry make quick stops to attract local media coverage that might help voters decide.

A rash of polls suggested the race for the popular vote was essentially tied after the costliest political advertising campaign in history – more than $600 million (euro471 million) spent by Bush, Kerry, their political parties and allied groups.

The election’s outcome also was uncertain in the battleground states, the eight or so states where Bush and Kerry are vying for a winning margin of the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. The number of a state’s electoral votes is related to its population.

The campaign’s final weekend was clouded by war and terrorism – a videotape by Osama bin Laden and the deaths of eight US Marines in Iraq.

Bush made a pitch for Hispanic voters in Miami, promising Cuban-American voters that he would push for freedom in communist Cuba. “We will not rest – we will not rest, we will keep the pressure on until the Cuban people enjoy the same freedoms in Havana they receive here in America,” Bush said. The crowd responded with cries of “Viva Bush”.

The president began the day at The Church of the Epiphany, a Roman Catholic church where the pastor, Monsignor Jude O’Doherty, all but endorsed Bush. “Mr President, I want you to know that I admire your faith and your courage to profess it,” the priest said in a long tribute to Bush. “Your belief in prayer and dependence on God has to be an example for all of us.”

Kerry, who is Catholic, worshipped in Dayton, Ohio, first at a Catholic mass and then – for the fifth consecutive Sunday – at a predominantly black church.

Quoting the Bible and criticising Bush without naming him, Kerry said, “There is a standard by which we have to live. Coming to church on Sundays and talking about faith and professing faith isn’t the whole deal.”

Bush campaigned from one end of Florida to the other, with rallies in Miami, Tampa and Gainesville before flying to Ohio for an evening rally in Cincinnati. Kerry dashed north from Ohio to New Hampshire and then was appearing in Tampa at a rally.