In his first few hours as his party's inevitable presidential pick, McCain wasted no time laying out a hawkish vision, strikingly similar to the outgoing Bush administration's foreign policy creed.

After chief rival Mitt Romney bowed out of the race, effectively handing him the nomination Thursday, the Arizona senator turned to a familiar page in the Republican election playbook: branding Democrats soft on defense.

He hit out hard at senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are locked in a tight battle for the Democratic nomination, faulting them on Iraq, Iran and also rapping them hard on domestic policy.

"They won't recognize and seriously address the threat posed by an Iran with nuclear ambitions to our ally Israel and the region," McCain said in a speech designed to build bridges with the Republican party's conservative wing.

The Vietnam war hero told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) here that he would make "unmistakably" clear to Tehran it will not be able to win atomic weapons with its "malevolent ambitions."

"Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will concede to our critics that our own actions to defend against its threats are responsible for fomenting the terrible evil of radical Islamic extremism, and their response to combat it will be as flawed as their judgement."

McCain's comments won immediate acclaim from one of the more hawkish sectors of his party's big tent: The Republican Jewish Coalition.

"We are thrilled to hear Senator McCain so clearly contrast his position on Iran -- Israel's vitriolic enemy -- with that of Senator Clinton and Senator Obama," said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks.

"Senator McCain recognizes the only way to defeat this evil is with resolve and not lip-service."

McCain, an outspoken advocate of President George W. Bush's strategy of surging troops into Iraq, also raised the prospect of years more of US involvement in the politically unpopular war.

He accused Clinton and Obama of plotting to withdraw US forces from Iraq on an arbitrary timetable, solely for "political expediency which recklessly ignores the profound human calamity and dire threats to our security."

In a reference to his military past, which included years in a Vietnam war prison camp, McCain said no one in the presidential race understood the awful pain and cost of war as he did.

"But I know that the costs in lives and treasure we would incur should we fail in Iraq will be far greater than the heartbreaking losses we have suffered to date," he said. "And I will not allow that to happen."

Clinton, who campaigned in Virginia on Thursday, was quick to respond to McCain, whom she nevertheless called her "friend."

"I believe that he offers more of the same," she said.

"More of the same military policies in Iraq. He said recently he could see having American troops in Iraq for 100 year -- well I want them coming home within 60 days of my becoming president of the United States."

On domestic policy, McCain laid out a broadly conservative platform -- making Bush's tax cuts permanent, no universal health care and pledged to appoint anti-abortion judges, in an olive branch to grass roots conservatives.

But after a career sparring with the movement -- a vitally important voting bloc in the Republican party -- he skipped over his sharp differences with the bloc.

McCain was the only Republican candidate to promise an effort to seriously tackle global warming -- a potential flashpoint in his uneasy truce with conservatives as many of the movement's true believers reject the idea of man-made climate change.

He conspicuously avoided the issue at CPAC, but it will be an important plank of his efforts to keep his legions of moderate and independent voters who are an important part of his countrywide powerbase.

Another area where he is at odds with his party's right wing is illegal immigration, after backing a failed comprehensive reform package last year, branded by critics as an amnesty.

He was booed as he brought the issue up at CPAC. But he vowed to secure US borders before going further, although he did not say if he would relaunch the reform as president.

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