WASHINGTON, Sept 18: US President George W.Bush received a potential boost on Friday in his bid for re-election when a court ruled that independent candidate Ralph Nader, who experts believe helped Bush win four years ago, be placed on Florida's presidential ballot.

As the Republican and Democrat campaigns both claimed momentum amid a mix of polls offering a confused picture of the US presidential race, Florida's Supreme Court ordered Reform Party candidate Nader be allowed to compete in the state that decided the 2000 election.

A judge also ordered that Nader be included on the ballot in Colorado, another state that voted for Bush in 2000 but where polls indicate a close race in the Nov. 2 election.

Democrats around the United States have been challenging Nader's presence on the ballot because they view the consumer advocate as a spoiler who helped Bush get elected.

The Florida Supreme Court ruled on a challenge by the Democratic party against Nader being included on ballots on the grounds his Reform Party was not a genuine national political organization.

"In making our decision in this case, we are guided by the overriding constitutional principle in favour of ballot access," the Supreme Court said.

Recent polls show Bush is locked in a tight race with Democratic challenger John Kerry in Florida.

Nader was a Green Party candidate in 2000 when Bush won Florida by 537 votes to clinch the White House. Analysts said most of Nader's nearly 98,000 Florida votes would have gone to Democrat Al Gore had Nader not been on the ballot.

Polls show the 2004 presidential race is shaping up to be just as close as 2000, when the US Supreme Court ruled on the Florida recount to hand Bush victory.

The Bush campaign said surveys this week showed Bush was still enjoying his post-convention bounce and holding a lead over Kerry, despite a Harris poll that gave the Democrat challenger a 1-point lead and a Pew poll that showed the race tied.

"The average of all of these polls shows President Bush with a five-point lead, 50 percent to 45 percent," said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel.

Bolstering the Bush campaign were a number of state polls, including one showing the race extremely close in Minnesota, a Democratic-leaning state, and one with Bush in striking range of Kerry in New Jersey, usually a Democrat-voting state.

POLL DISCOUNTED: But Kerry's campaign said the race was close and discounted a Gallup Poll survey that gave Bush a 13-point lead among likely voters.

Kerry, campaigning in New Mexico and Colorado on Friday, accused Bush of abusing Americas's trust and of mismanaging the war in Iraq - a key election issue.

Kerry charged the Bush administration with rewarding politically connected companies for landing huge defence contracts in Iraq and then "turning a blind eye to the massive overcharging and waste."

He singled out Halliburton, the multinational company Vice President Dick Cheney once headed, for landing huge no-bid government contracts to rebuild war-torn Iraq.

"It is clear that almost every aspect of this war, from how we went to how it was conducted, has been mismanaged, all the way to turning a blind eye to the massive overcharging and waste that their friends at Halliburton engage in," he said.

Bush, speaking in North Carolina, acknowledged the United States faced tough going in Iraq but said US troops would come home when the country was on a path to democracy.

Bush, who has always avoided talking about when US troops might come home, was a bit more expansive amid mounting US casualties.

"Once we get these folks trained and get them on the path of building a democracy, our folks are coming home, for the honour they earned," Bush said.

The US Navy rejected a legal watchdog group's request to open an investigation into military awards given to Kerry during the Vietnam War, saying his medals were properly approved.

The service of the two candidates during Vietnam has become a hot issue, with Bush critics saying the president got into the Air National Guard to avoid combat.

The Pentagon on Friday released more documents on Bush's service, including a letter from his then-congressman father George Bush thanking a general for "taking interest in a brand new Air Force trainee."

"(It) made a big impression on me," then Texas Rep. George Bush wrote to Maj. Gen. G.B. Greene Jr., commander of the Air Force Base Military Training Centre, on Sept. 11, 1968.-Reuters