WASHINGTON -- Anti-establishment crusader and perennial U.S. presidential candidate Ralph Nader has jumped into the race as an Independent - the latest twist in the surprisingly unpredictable 2008 battle for the White House.

Mr. Nader, still blamed by many Democrats for denying Al Gore the presidency in 2000, vowed yesterday to fight for the little guy as he launched his fifth presidential bid in 15 years.

"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized and disrespected," he said on NBC's Meet the Press.

"You go from Iraq to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts."

His candidacy has the potential to peel off a swath of the most liberal U.S. voters from the eventual Democratic nominee, either Illinois Senator Barack Obama or New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

Ms. Clinton acknowledged that Mr. Nader's entry into the race could hurt the party's chances. "Obviously, it's not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is. But it's a free country," she told reporters as she flew to Rhode Island for campaign events. She predicted that Mr. Nader's declaration, coming less than nine months before the election, would ultimately be a "passing fancy."

In the disputed 2000 election, Mr. Nader captured less than 3 per cent of the vote nationally, but that was significantly larger than the razor-thin margin between Mr. Gore and George W. Bush. And his votes vastly exceeded Mr. Bush's winning margin in several key states, including Florida and New Hampshire. If he hadn't run, pollsters argue most of Mr. Nader's left-leaning supporters would have swung to Mr. Gore, effectively denying Mr. Bush the presidency.

Mr. Nader ran again in 2004, angering Democratic Party officials, who suggested that his presence on the ballot would hand Mr. Bush a second term. Mr. Bush narrowly defeated Democratic nominee John Kerry, but Mr. Nader garnered less than 0.4 per cent of the vote and wasn't a spoiler in any of the 34 states where his name was on the ballot.

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