Romney out, McCain seals Republican nomination

TIME'S UP: Mitt Romney and his wife Ann wave after he made a speech that he is dropping out of the Presidential race.

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Washington: John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives.

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Romney's decision leaves McCain as the top man standing in the Republican race, with Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul far behind in the delegate hunt.

It was a remarkable turnaround for McCain, who some seven months ago was barely viable, out of cash and losing staff.

The four-term Arizona senator, denied his party's nomination in 2000, was poised to succeed George W Bush as the Republican standard-bearer.

Romney launched his campaign almost a year ago in his native Michigan.

The former Massachusetts governor and venture capitalist invested more than $40 million of his own money into the race, counted on early wins in Iowa and New Hampshire that never materialised and won just seven states out of 21 on the Super Tuesday vote.

He insisted on Wednesday that only a conservative cultural and economic path would keep the United States a superpower and help it avoid becoming a "demographic disaster," like Europe.

"That's the inevitable product of weakened faith in the Creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality," he said.

"I'm convinced that unless America changes course, we could become the France of the 21st century," he said.

"Still a great nation, but not the leader of the world, not the superpower. And to me that's unthinkable."

Romney again hammered the economic theme, a subject that helped bring him early campaign wins from voters concerned that the country is in a recession.

"If we don't change course, Asia or China will pass us by as the economic superpower, just as we passed England and France during the last century."