Obama tagged as 8216;metrosexual black Abe Lincoln8217;

Denouncing Obama as a 8220;metrosexual black Abe Lincoln8221;,the group planned to 8220;inflame opinion8221; by resurrecting a four-year-old controversy surrounding his former pastor,Rev Jeremiah Wright.

In a leaked 54-page strategy dossier,8221;The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama8221;,it proposed a US 10-million-dollar advertising campaign on Rev Wright to coincide with Septembers Democratic party convention.

8220;The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence,8221; the Age quoted it as saying.

Footage released in 2008 showed Rev Wright telling his congregation 8220;Not God bless America 8211; God damn America8221;.

Amid fury from the Presidents allies,Romney,the presumptive Republican presidential nominee,said yesterday Thursday that he 8220;repudiated8221; efforts 8220;to promote an ad strategy of the nature theyve described8221;. He added that he wanted to focus his campaign on the economy.

An Obama spokesman accused him of 8220;reacting tepidly8221; to 8220;a moment that required moral leadership8221;,describing the plan as 8220;a hate-filled,divisive campaign of character assassination8221;.

The group,Character Matters,pledged to reverse Republican reluctance in 2008 to use Rev Wright against Obama.

8220;Our plan is to do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,8221; it said.

Referring to an advertisement on Rev Wright apparently prepared for McCains campaign but eventually unused,it said 8220;If the nation had seen that ad,theyd never have elected Barack Obama8221;.

The group is one of a new crop of political action committees,known as 8220;Super PACs8221;,and they are free to spend unlimited corporate funds on campaigning. It is led by Joe Ricketts,a 70-year-old billionaire whose family owns the Chicago Cubs baseball team.

A spokesman for Mr Ricketts said that the proposal was 8220;only a suggestion for a direction to take8221; drawn up by political consultants and would not be implemented.

8220;Not only was this plan merely a proposal but it reflects an approach to politics that Mr Ricketts rejects,and it was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take,8221; the spokesman said.

The disclosure of its dossier by The New York Times reopened the row over the so-called 8220;black liberation theology8221; of Rev Wright,from which Mr Obama was forced to distance himself in 2008.

It prompted the then-Senator to deliver an acclaimed speech on race in Philadelphia in March that year,which was credited with neutralising the issue and bolstering his campaign for the White House.