Digitally enhanced Bush ad pulled from US television

LONDON – US President George W Bush and the Republican Party have been forced to pull a TV ad after a website revealed a picture of the President speaking to US soldiers in Iraq had been digitally manipulated.

The liberal website, , exposed the shot, which shows several US troops faces repeated five times, as doctored to make it look like the crowd the president is addressing is larger than it is.

The Republican Party was quick to respond, with a spokesperson saying the photographs had been altered because the president and podium were blocking the crowd of soldiers. They apparently removed the podium and replaced the blank space with soldiers' faces.

Bush's Democratic rival John Kerry's campaign team used the incident to mock the President's "Whatever it takes" campaign.

John Lockhart, Kerry's campaign adviser, told the Los Angeles Times: "Now we know why the ad is named 'Whatever it takes'. The administration has always had a problem telling the truth, from Iraq, to jobs, to healthcare. If they won't tell the truth in an ad, they won't tell you the truth about anyone else."

The ad is to be re-edited and screened on television for in the run-up to the US election on November 2.

Latest polls put Bush and Kerry neck and neck, with voters in the swing states of Florida and Pensylvannia proving to crucial to the outcome.

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