WASHINGTON - MR BARACK Obama's backers on Sunday branded Republican John McCain as out of touch and guilty of betraying US workers after it was reported his family owns 13 cars, including several foreign models.

The Republican presidential hopeful and his family have already faced ridicule and criticism from Democrats over a property portfolio which includes seven homes.

The United Auto Workers union (UAW) accused the Arizona senator in a conference call organised by Democrats of not telling the truth about always buying American cars, as the family fleet reportedly includes a Honda and a Volkswagen.

'When he's in the midwest, he tells voters he supports the industry,' UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said, referring to economically bereft battleground states.

'That's a really a nice campaign line, but it turns out that John McCain wasn't being straight with the people of Detroit,' Mr Gettelfinger said.

'We need a president who's committed to rebuilding the auto industry in America, not a president who buys foreign cars,' said Mr Gettelfinger.

In the past, Mr McCain has said he was proud to buy American cars, including in an interview on a Detroit television station.

The latest flap erupted after Newsweek reported that Mr McCain and his wife Cindy, an heiress to a lucrative beer distribution company, had 13 vehicles.

Mrs Cindy McCain drives a Lexus with the private number plate 'Ms Bud' which is registered to the beer distributorship, the magazine reported.

Newsweek said that Mr Obama and his wife Michelle own a single car, a Ford Escape Hybrid, which was dubbed by Mr Gettelfinger as a 'green machine' emblematic of a future generation of US vehicles.

There was no immediate response to the UAW attack from the McCain campaign. -- AFP