World

President Barack Obama lampooned the just-completed Republican National Convention as better-suited to an era of black-and-white TV and " trickle-down, you're on your own" economics Saturday, and declared that Mitt Romney "did not offer a single new idea" to fix the economy.

"There was a lot of talk about hard truths and bold choices, but no one actually told you what they were," Obama said in Iowa, chuckling, as he set out on a three-day tour of battleground states in the run-up to his own convention.

Later, Obama said, the Republican gathering was so rooted in the past, there should have been a rabbit-ears antenna on the convention hall.

Yet even the site of Obama's convention, Charlotte, N.C., served as an unwelcome reminder to the Democrats of an economy so weak that it threatens his chances for re-election.

The president carried North Carolina in 2008, but the state's unemployment rate is pegged at 9.6 per cent, well higher than the nation's 8.3 per cent and tied with next-door South Carolina for fifth from the bottom.

Obama's convention opens Tuesday at the Time Warner Cable arena with evening speeches by first lady Michelle Obama and San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, the keynote speaker.

The president will be nominated for a new term on Wednesday, when former President Bill Clinton also will speak. Vice-President Joe Biden delivers his own acceptance speech the same evening.

Obama's prime-time acceptance speech, to be delivered at the outdoor Bank of America Stadium, caps the convention on Thursday night. Aides predict a capacity crowd will hear the speech at the site, which has a capacity of nearly 74,000 for football.

Democrats are taking their turn in the convention spotlight just days after the Republicans met in Tampa, Fla., to nominate former Massachusetts Gov. Romney for the White House and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan to be vice-president.

Television ratings for the final night of the Republican convention were lower than four years ago.

The Nielsen Co. said an estimated 30.3 million viewers watched Thursday night's coverage of Romney's acceptance speech.

That was down by one-fourth from 2008, when John McCain spoke on the final night of the Republican gathering in St. Paul., Minn.

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Feller reported from Urbandale and Sioux City, Iowa. Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt in Cincinnati, Beth Fouhy in Charlotte and Steve Peoples in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.