By Caren Bohan
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said on Friday a mounting financial crisis required coordinated global steps as he focussed on the U.S. economy and rejected Republican John McCain's personal attacks.
"In this global economy, financial markets have no boundaries. So the current crisis demands a global response," said Obama, who leads opinion polls over McCain with 25 days to go until the November 4 election.
With weekend talks scheduled by world finance ministers in Washington, Obama said those officials "must take coordinated steps to restore confidence," but he stopped short of suggesting what those steps might include.
He called on Americans to come together to help rebuild the economy, saying "I won't pretend that this will be easy or come without cost."
"We will all need to sacrifice and we will all need to pull our weight because now more than ever, we are all in this together," Obama said, speaking to about 5,000 people in front of a courthouse in this city in southern Ohio.
The economic crisis is playing to Obama's strengths, as a majority of Americans have told pollsters they trust him more than McCain to handle economic issues.
McCain, addressing a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin, called for steps to protect older investors from rules which require them to begin selling off stocks from their retirement portfolios when they reach 70-1/2 years old.
"To spare investors from being forced to sell their stocks at just the time when the markets are hurting the most, those rules should be suspended," McCain said.
As a raucous crowd booed whenever McCain mentioned Obama's name, the Arizona senator vowed to keep fighting.
"How many times have the pundits written off my campaign? We're going to fool them again," he said. "We have 25 days until the time of choosing."
Obama accused the McCain camp of launching "a barrage of nasty insinuations and attacks" and said he expected more in the days leading up to the election.
"STOKING ANGER"
McCain has demanded Obama explain the full extent of his ties with William Ayers, a founding member of the Weather Underground group that bombed the U.S. Capitol and the Pentagon in the early 1970s to protest the Vietnam War.
Ayers, now a college education professor in Chicago, hosted a meeting at his house in 1995 to introduce Obama to neighbours during Obama's first run for the Illinois Senate. The two men also served on a nonprofit anti-poverty board together.
"It's easy to rile up a crowd by stoking anger and division," Obama said. "But that's not what we need right now in the United States. The times are too serious. The challenges are too great. The American people aren't looking for someone who can divide this country -- they're looking for someone who will lead it."
The McCain campaign accused Obama of seeking to "deflect legitimate criticism of himself and his record."
"At a time when hardworking families face uncertainty and a historic decision in November, they expect more than Barack Obama's self-interested calls to stifle any inquiry into his record or his past," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds.
Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 43 percent among likely U.S. voters in the latest Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, up slightly from a 4-point advantage for Obama on Thursday.
"Obama is benefiting from the terrible economic news and what was seen to be a relatively poor debate performance by McCain," pollster John Zogby said, referring to an Obama-McCain debate in Nashville on Tuesday.
Obama called for a Small Business Rescue Plan to help small firms get the loans they need to conduct daily operating expenses and meet payrolls.
McCain has accused Obama of ignoring the impact on small businesses of his pledge to increase taxes on people making more than $250,000 (146,335 pounds) a year.
(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Writing by Steve Holland; Editing by David Storey and Chris Wilson)
