No rest on New Year's Eve for '08 hopefuls

US, White House candidates Monday launch a New Year's eve blitz of Iowa, mining for last minute support three days before the state's nominating contests kick off the 2008 election circus.

Hillary Clinton, locked in a fierce tussle with rivals Barack Obama and John Edwards, planned to ring in 2008 with husband, ex-president and Democratic champion Bill Clinton, with a late night rally in state capitol Des Moines.

Edwards, who polls suggest may be gaining momentum in the dead-heat Democratic race, was sending out hundreds of campaign volunteers on a state-wide canvas ahead of Thursday's critical caucuses.

Obama meanwhile, who is pleading with voters to send him to the White House to cleanse US politics, planned an exhausting day of five campaign rallies across the ice-bound state.

Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, the two top Republicans in Iowa, meanwhile looked set to deepen their antagonism after spending Sunday flinging nasty accusations at one another, with their race also deemed to close to call.

The caucuses are a crucial first test for candidates, and have the potential to send victors onto later contests with a jolt of momentum, and could effectively snuff out the challenge of candidates who disappoint.

Edwards surged in an MSNBC/McClatchy poll in Iowa released Sunday to lead by 24 percent, ahead of Clinton on 23 percent and Obama on 22 percent.

A Zogby survey in notoriously hard-to-poll Iowa, however, had Clinton on 31 percent - four points ahead of Obama. Edwards was back on 24 percent.

Des Moines, Iowa, Monday, AFP