Gore wants Clinton’s help but only so much

"This is a campaign that I’m running on my own and as I have said on previous occasions, I am who I am," Gore said.

"I’m running in my own right with my vision for the future of our country," Gore said aboard Air Force Two. "We face new challenges in a new time."

Clinton at a fund-raising stop in Lowell, Massachusetts, praised his Vice President. "Al Gore makes good decisions. He is smart. He knows what he’s doing. He is tough. He has good values."

With 18 days to go before elections on November 7, and polls showing Gore in a close race with Republican rival George W Bush, some Democrats have urged the Vice President’s campaign to make greater use of the President.

Americans surveyed in polls give Clinton high marks for his job performance but disapprove of him as a person because of his affair with Monica Lewinsky and subsequent impeachment drama.

That makes him a potential liability, and Gore has tried to distance himself from Clinton, particularly at a time when he is facing questions about exaggerating facts that have hurt his own credibility.

"I just want to do what’s best," Clinton told reporters who asked him what his role would be.

Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the president would campaign for Gore and Democrats in California and other states, but could not name immediately which other states. No joint rallies are planned.

Clinton also will be featured in some get-out-the-vote television ads, and will record telephone messages to be automatically dialed to targeted households, Lehane said.

Friday, Gore and his wife, Tipper, appeared together in public with Clinton and his wife Hillary for the first time since their "passing of the baton" meeting on August 15 shortly before Gore accepted the Democratic presidential nomination.

They were in Jefferson City attending the memorial service for Democratic Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, killed in a private plane crash on Monday night.