Senator John Kerry speaks to workers at a Cleveland steel plant (Reuters)

Cleveland, Feb. 25 (Reuters): Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry today blamed President George W. Bush’s policies for funnelling American jobs overseas and proposed to discourage the practice by requiring US companies to give advance notice of plans to send work abroad.

In a speech prepared for delivery at the University of Toledo in hard-hit Ohio, a key state among 10 that will hold nominating contests next week, Kerry said he could not promise that “all the rivers of steel will flow again” but offered a slate of ideas for stemming the tide of job losses.

“I’m not going to pledge the impossible,“ Kerry told about two dozen hard-hatted workers at AK-ISG Steel in Cleveland. “But I can fight to make sure you’ve got a level playing field.”

The four-term Massachusetts Senator and Democratic front-runner accused the Bush administration of being unwilling to enforce trade provisions and failing to create jobs in the US.

Kerry blasted Bush’s economic policies and called the President “a walking contradiction” who promised his massive tax cuts would create four million jobs and had, instead, lost three million.

“I think when you’re 7 million jobs in the hole, step number one is pretty simple: stop digging,” he said in his prepared remarks.

North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Kerry’s major rival in the race to see who will challenge Bush on November 2, has wagered his campaign on the issue of outsourcing and the loss of jobs under trade pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between the US, Canada and Mexico.

Both Democrats have lavished attention on Ohio and other “Super Tuesday” states such as Georgia, Minnesota and New York — that have suffered big manufacturing job losses. Kerry launched a new round of television ads today in Ohio and upstate New York in which he vows to create jobs.

Kerry voted for Nafta in 1993 but has since said he would order a 120-day review of all trade pacts.

He laid out specific guidelines for companies wanting to send jobs overseas, including at least three months’ advance notice for affected employees as well as notification of the labour department, state agencies and local government officials.