The campaign is reaching its peak - and temperatures are rising
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The Democratic candidate for the US presidency, John Kerry, has said he will make stem cell research a top priority if he wins the election.
Mr Kerry vowed to reverse present curbs and evoked the memory of Christopher Reeve, the disabled Superman star who had campaigned on the issue.
George W Bush has ruled out reviving the military draft - an issue raised by Mr Kerry - if he is re-elected.
The campaign has reached its final phase, with less than three weeks to go.
The temperature is higher than ever and the campaigning dominated by aggressive rhetoric and verbal attacks, says the BBC's Jill McGivering in Washington.
Scientists' hands 'tied'
"We are going to make funding for [stem cell] research a top priority," Mr Kerry said while campaigning in the state of Ohio.
Mr Bush stepped up attacks on his rival
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"We'll continue to lead the world in great discoveries - all while upholding the highest ethical standards."
Restrictions on funding for embryonic research imposed by Mr Bush had, he said, "tied the hands" of scientists and halted research into spinal cord injuries and life-threatening diseases".
Mr Bush, he said, had turned his "back on science".
"When it comes to reality, George Bush has a simple strategy: Ignore it, deny it, then try to hide it," said the Democratic challenger.
Mr Kerry also accused Mr Bush of allowing a flu vaccine shortage to arise.
'No draft'
Mr Bush, who was campaigning in Florida on Saturday, ruled out any return to the military conscription of the Vietnam War years.
"We will not have a draft... The best way to avoid a draft is to vote for me," he said.
He also suggested that his rival was motivated by "the shifting sands of political convenience" and could not lead America "at a time of great threats".
Mr Bush also announced that he had signed into law a bill by which the US the state department would rate countries annually on the way they treated Jews.
"We will make sure that the ancient impulse of anti-Semitism never finds a home in the modern world," he said.
Florida, with its large Jewish population, is among so-called "swing states" expected to prove crucial to the result on 2 November - as is Ohio.
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