"We are going to restore morale in the U.S. military," Bush told the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Milwaukee on Monday at the start of a two-day campaign swing through Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. "America's soldiers must have confidence that if asked to serve and sacrifice, the cause will be worthy and our support for them total."

In addition, he pledged "orderly and timely" withdrawal of troops from Bosnia and Kosovo, saying the administration has committed the nation to military confrontations that lack a direct national interest.

Bush as the GOP presidential nominee has striven to prove his competence in military affairs after facing questions about whether he possesses the knowledge and experience to lead the nation in times of conflict.

A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll released Sunday had Vice President Al Gore at 47 percent, Bush at 46 percent, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader at 3 percent and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan at 2 percent.

The poll of 697 likely voters taken Friday and Saturday had an error margin of 4 percentage points. That same poll right before the convention showed Bush 16 points ahead of Gore, 55 percent to 39 percent.

"I like my chances, but I know I've got a lot of work to do," Bush said aboard his campaign plane on the way to Milwaukee. "It's going to be a close race."

Backed by a pair of new commercials, Bush and running mate Dick Cheney plan to visit 16 battleground states between now and the traditional start of the campaign season in two weeks.

Most of those states have not been won by Republican presidential candidates in the past two elections. Democrats have taken Wisconsin and Iowa, Bush's stops on Monday, since 1984.

Though his new ads focus on education, Bush's top legislative priority, military readiness has been a consistent drumbeat of his campaign, with one night of the GOP convention dedicated in part to war heroes and veterans of Cold War diplomacy who are backing his White House bid.

The proposals Bush was releasing Monday include:

• Increasing military pay by $1 billion -- or about $750 per active-duty service member -- over the $75.8 billion increase President Clinton signed into law this month. Bush also promises to boost targeted re-enlistment bonuses and the pay of specialists such as pilots, computer programmers and engineers.
• Provide $310 million to the Department of Education's "Impact Aid" Construction Program to eliminate the backlog of repair and construction needs for public schools located on or near military facilities.
• Create a "Veterans Health Care Task Force," composed of officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs, veterans service organizations and VA health care providers, to help implement the Veterans Millennium Health Care Act.
• Review overseas deployments and seek political solutions that allow an orderly and timely withdrawal from hotspots like Kosovo and Bosnia.

Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway said Bush's tax-cut proposal would leave little room to pay for the $1.3 billion the Republican is recommending for increases in military pay and other areas. He also said Gore supports an additional 3.7 percent military pay raise on top of the boost Congress has approved for military personnel this year.

In Iowa, Bush was also due to stop at a school and attend two fund-raisers aimed at raising $350,000 for the Republican National Committee and $200,000 for the state GOP.