MORE TUESDAY COVERAGE Candidates tweak message for New Hampshire terrain Candidates charge onto N.H. airwaves Bradley appeals to independent New Hampshire voters Republicans look for spirited contest in N.H. Abortion issue dogs McCain in New Hampshire Caucuses over, presidential candidates flee to New Hampshire Tax issue boosts Forbes coming into New Hampshire Snow keeps Keyes from campaigning in N.H. Ad accuses McCain of working to cover up live POW data

Just a week before New Hampshire's primary, the first in the nation, McCain told a national news program that abortion should be banned except in cases of rape, incest and pregnancy that endangered the life of the mother.

Later, on his Straight Talk Express campaign bus, the Arizona senator said he would seek to change the Republican Party's current, more restrictive platform plank on the issue.

At his first town hall meeting of the day in Sunapee, McCain reiterated his pro-life position, especially after two people in the audience came up to him and said they had received mailings from the Right-to-Life Committee saying he was pro-choice.

He said the committee supported Texas Gov. George Bush, the Republicans' national front-runner.

Despite heavy snow that took one of his two campaign buses out of commission, McCain drew about 100 people to the meeting in Hennicker, a hamlet west of Concord, where the issue resurfaced.

"We now have the right to have control over our own bodies without the government having anything to say about it. And I want to know what you will do to protect that right that I now have," Pamela Veenstra, a 51-year-old graphic artist, asked, having prefaced her question by expressing concern about the kind of Supreme Court justices McCain would appoint.

"POSITION OF MY PARTY"

"I am pro-life, and I have a position that's the position of my party. ... It's based on the belief that life begins at conception," McCain responded.

"I also believe very strongly that we need to work together between pro-life and pro-choice individuals to work on areas on which we agree. We should make adoption easier in America. ... We should improve foster care," he said.

McCain added that he would not impose a litmus test of any kind on a Supreme Court nominee but "also would consider their record as far as their adherence to the constitution of the United States."

McCain leads Bush in New Hampshire polls but views himself as the underdog. Both he and New Hampshire state Republican Party Chairman Stephen Duprey said the Feb. 1 vote would be close.

Duprey said he expected close to 80 percent of the Granite State's voters to turn out for the primary. In 1992, the last time there was an open seat, 71 percent of Republican voters took part and 89 percent of Democrats.

Bush, who is also campaigning in New Hampshire after his first-place showing in Iowa, which McCain ignored, said he agreed with McCain on the abortion issue and the exceptions to it.

William Mayer, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, said of abortion: "I don't think it will be the dominant issue in the campaign. But in a neck-and-neck race, it may be enough (to determine the winner)."