Obama's drug past brought up

New York - A co-chairperson of Republican John McCain's presidential campaign called Barack Obama a "guy of the street" in a radio interview and said the Democratic nominee should be more candid about his youthful drug use.

Former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating made the comments on comedian Dennis Miller's radio show on Thursday while discussing Obama's record, which Keating described as "very extreme". He said the Illinois senator should also be more forthcoming about misdeeds of his past.

"He ought to admit, 'You know, I've got to be honest with you. I was a guy of the street. I was way to the left. I used cocaine. I voted liberally, but I'm back at the centre,"' Keating said of Obama.

In his memoir Dreams From My Father, Obama described experimenting with alcohol and drugs as a teenager, including marijuana and cocaine when he could afford it.

"Junkie. Pothead. That's where I'd been headed: the final, fatal role of the young would-be black man," Obama wrote.

McCain aides said Keating had not been asked to bring up Obama's past drug use and that he hadn't cleared his comments with the campaign. But in recent days, McCain and many of his top surrogates began publicly questioning whether voters know enough about Obama.

During the Democratic primary contest, Bill Shaheen, a top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign, resigned after suggesting that Obama's past drug use could be used against him in the general election.

Another prominent Clinton supporter, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, apologised in January after hinting at Obama's drug use at a campaign event in South Carolina.

- AP