Obama, Romney meet in Denver

US President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney have clashed over their economic plans in the first of three televised debates.

In their Denver duel, the candidates contrasted their approach on taxes, the deficit and healthcare, BBC News reported.
Mr Obama said he would ensure Americans were "playing by the same rules". His rival said re-electing Mr Obama would continue a "middle-class squeeze".

The president has held a narrow lead in recent opinion polls.

He went into the debate ahead in national polls and in many surveys in the swing states that will decide the election.

But he faced a confident opponent on the debate stage, with Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, sounding bullish throughout.

Throughout the debate, each man attempted to paint his rival as a disaster for working American families.

Romney derided Mr Obama's policies as "trickle-down government".

"The president has a view very similar to the one he had when he ran for office four years ago, that spending more, taxing more, regulating more - if you will, trickle-down government - would work," Mr Romney said.

"That's not the right answer for America."

Romney pledged not to reduce taxes for wealthy Americans, and said Mr Obama had misrepresented Mr Romney's tax plans on the campaign trail.

He hit out at the president for failing to cut the budget deficit in half as he pledged in 2008, and insisted that the US must not allow itself to go down the path of Greece or Spain.

Even as he pledged to repeal Mr Obama's health law, Romney praised and defended a plan he himself had previously signed as governor of Massachusetts that is widely hailed as the model for the Obama law.

Obama, meanwhile, said his plan had kept insurance companies from denying coverage to sick people.

The University of Denver debate was the first in a series of three presidential forums and one vice-presidential encounter this month.
Running-mates Joe Biden and Paul Ryan will meet in Danville, Kentucky on 11 October, before the second presidential debate on 16 October.