ST LOUIS - REPUBLICAN vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin defied critics by going on the attack in her keenly awaited debate with Mr Joseph Biden, and escaped the clash without a disastrous gaffe.

Mrs Palin, 44, and Mr Biden, 65, faced off in St Louis, Missouri, at a critical moment for Mr John McCain's Republican White House campaign, as Democrat Obama opened up a lead in all fronts ahead of election day on Nov 4.

Alaska Governor Palin, posing as a Washington outsider, largely ignored the questions, and fired off staccato soundbites and aimed planned attacks in a folksy manner against Mr Obama, warning his foreign policy was 'dangerous'. She aimed to make up for her lack of experience on key national and international issues, by trying to forge a connection with middle class and women voters who are key to the election outcome.

Framing herself as a typical middle-class person that goes to kids soccer games, showcasing her 'hockey mom' persona, she painted herself as a reformer as a small town mayor and governor and an expert on energy.

'I may not answer the question the way you want to hear, but I'll talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also,' she said.

Mr Biden, a political veteran with 35 years of experience, provided detailed policy answers, trying to show a range of expertise across the economy, foreign policy and national security.

He was careful not to attack Mrs Palin or her credentials directly, seeking to avoid being branded as sexist or a bully, seeking instead to label Mr McCain as a clone of unpopular President George W. Bush.

'Nice to meet you, can I call you Joe?' Mrs Palin said, in a comment picked up by microphones as she walked on stage and shook hands with her adversary, as she faced mounting questions about her qualifications for the job.

Delaware Senator Biden returned the compliment as he answered his first question about the US$700 billion (S$1 trillion)Wall Street bailout up for a vote in the House of Representatives on Friday.

'Governor, it's a pleasure to meet you,' Mr Biden said.

The two rivals clashed on the financial crisis, and its debilitating impact on the US middle classes.

Mrs Palin warned Democrats would embrace wealth distribution and high tax policies that she said would limit growth. Mr Biden argued that eight years of Republican policies were to blame for the economy's nightmare.

'It was two Mondays ago that John McCain said at nine in the morning that fundamentals of the economy were strong,' Mr Biden said.

'Later that day John McCain said we had an economic crisis - that doesn't make John McCain a bad guy but it does point out he's out of touch,' he said.

Mr Palin chose not to parry a Biden claim that Mr McCain had argued against greater regulation on Wall Street, and contributed to the debt-laden crisis threatening the US economy.

Instead, she argued that Mr Obama had voted in the Senate to raise taxes 94 times, a claim that has been questioned by newspaper reports and independent fact check operations.

She also painted Mr McCain as a 'maverick' immune from the kind of Washington logjam politics she framed his long-time Senate colleague Biden as representing.

While Mrs Palin was strongest on domestic policy, the gap in experience and knowledge between the rivals became most obvious when the debate turned to national security, and the Bush administration's foreign policy legacy.

She called the commander of the NATO-led security assistance force in Afghanistan 'McClellan' instead of his name General David McKiernan, and her answers were often vague and lacked detail.

Mr Biden branded Mr McCain as a clone of Mr Bush on foreign policy and said he would extend the same policies which Democrats say have failed.

'I haven't heard how his policy will be different on Iran than George W. Bush's. I haven't heard how his policy on Afghanistan will be different than George Bush's, I haven't heard how his policy in Pakistan will be different than George Bush's.'

But Mrs Palin rebuked Mr Biden for dwelling on the past and not the future.

'There is a time, too, when Americans say enough is enough with your ticket on constantly looking backwards and pointing fingers and doing the blame game,' she said.

Mrs Palin wowed the Republican convention in early September with her speech, and the devout Christian, pro-life, moose-hunting mother-of-five reenergised the party's conservative base reluctant to embrace Mr McCain.

But her star has been fading amid a string of controversies and her stumbling performances in the few media interviews she has granted. -- AFP