WASHINGTON, (AFP) — Republican White House contender Rick Santorum on Sunday scaled back an apparent attack on Barack Obama's faith, saying it was the US president's "world view", that he takes issue with.

Santorum, a staunch Catholic who takes a strong line against abortion and gay marriage, on Saturday hit out at Obama for believing in "some phony ideal, some phony theology. Not a theology based on the Bible."

But on Sunday he moved to water down those remarks, made at a campaign stop in Ohio, and told CBS television's Face the Nation programme that he had been referring not to the president's religion, but his views on the environment.

"I was talking about the radical environmentalists," Santorum told CBS.

"That's what I was talking about — energy, this idea that man is here to serve the Earth, as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. And I think that is a phony ideal," he said.

"The Earth is not the objective. Man is the objective. I think a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside-down," Santorum added.

Santorum, who is liked by the most conservative factions in the Republican party, has in recent weeks topped some opinion polls in the hotly-contested race to challenge Obama in a November 6 election.

  0 comments

  1 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments

  0 comments