New York, Sept. 2 (Reuters): Vice-president Dick Cheney led the Republican convention’s most stinging assault on Democrat John Kerry yesterday, depicting him as a weak and indecisive leader who was unfit to be commander in chief.

Cheney, one of President George W. Bush’s most influential advisers, said the Massachusetts senator who is challenging Bush for the White House had “a habit of indecision” and should not be entrusted with the White House.

“On Iraq, Senator Kerry has disagreed with many of his fellow Democrats, but Senator Kerry’s liveliest disagreement is with himself,” Cheney said in a speech accepting the party’s nomination for a second term as vice-president.

“His back and forth reflects a habit of indecision, and sends a message of confusion,” he said, citing Kerry’s votes to authorise war in Iraq and to support domestic initiatives that he has since criticised. “Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual — America sees two John Kerrys.”

The prime-time televised showcase for Cheney gave Americans their closest look in years at a key figure in the Bush administration who normally shuns the limelight.

Bush will give his acceptance speech tomorrow, kicking off a two-month race to the November 2 election that polls show is essentially a dead heat. Bush has gained ground on Kerry in recent weeks and taken a slight lead in several surveys. Cheney, a strong supporter of the Iraq war, said Kerry did not understand that the world had changed after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and questioned whether Kerry could be trusted to sit in the Oval Office.

“In this time of challenge, America needs — and America has — a President we can count on to get it right,” Cheney said, praising Bush as “a man who speaks plainly and means what he says.” In the harshest speech of the convention, keynote speaker Zell Miller, a Democratic senator from Georgia who is backing Bush, said Kerry would be a “dangerous” leader. “Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the UN,” said Miller.