World

Mitt Romney scored his third major victory in the Republican presidential race in Nevada Saturday as his chief rival for the prize, Newt Gingrich, planned to unveil a new strategy for his flailing campaign.

Romney won the "first in the West" Nevada caucuses with almost 50 per cent of the vote, while Gingrich and libertarian congressman Ron Paul were in a fierce battle for second place.

Gingrich scheduled a Las Vegas news conference for 11 p.m. EST in Las Vegas, a departure from the more traditional practice of addressing supporters after caucus results are known.

Word of the news conference spurred speculation that Gingrich might be announcing he's dropping out, especially in light of a remarkably light schedule of events in Nevada after being trounced by Romney in the Florida primary earlier in the week.

The former speaker of the House of Representatives, however, has repeatedly vowed to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention in Tampa in late August. And Romney had long been favoured to win Nevada, with its significant Mormon population.

But rather than dropping out, the Gingrich campaign said it was set to announce plans to refocus his bid for the White House with a delegate-based strategy that will enable him to stay in the race until the convention.

There were no details on how he'd achieve that goal.

Sheldon Adelson, the casino mogul who's already donated millions to Gingrich's political action committee, was to appear with him at the Las Vegas news conference.

Gingrich has had a rough road on the campaign trail since his resounding loss to Romney in Florida following a US$14 million barrage of negative advertising launched against him by pro-Romney forces.

Gingrich's campaign suggested to reporters all week that real estate mogul Donald Trump was about to endorse him; in fact, the mega-mouthed millionaire threw his support behind the former Massachusetts governor on Thursday.

Gingrich also reportedly missed a meeting with Brian Sandoval, governor of Nevada. Sandoval supported Texas Gov. Rick Perry's run for president and was thought to be ready to back Gingrich.

Nonetheless, Gingrich handlers have high hopes for so-called Super Tuesday, a day of multiple caucuses and primaries on March 6. The delegate-rich state of Georgia, in particular, could be fertile ground for Gingrich.

The winning candidate has to win 1,144 delegates to get the nomination. Victories in the early primaries and caucuses generally propel a winning candidate to the later states on a wave of momentum.

Romney's already taken New Hampshire, Florida, and now the Nevada caucuses.

It's the second time he's won Nevada, four years ago, during his first run for president, he took the state with 51 per cent of the vote.