McCain is due to debate Obama on foreign policy on Friday [AFP]

But Barack Obama rejected John McCain's call on Wednesday to postpone a debate between the two on Friday, saying Americans wanted to hear what their future leader had to say on the crisis and that a president should be able to multi-task.

McCain announced that he would suspend his campaign, pull television advertising, halt fund-raising and return to Washington on Thursday to try to help negotiations over a stalled $700bn bail-out plan for Wall Street.

"We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved," McCain said, urging Obama to push back their television debate on foreign policy in order to concentrate on solving the economic mess.

White House meeting

An Obama spokesman said the senator would attend the meeting but the Democratic candidate rejected the call for the debate to be pushed back.

"It's my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who in approximately 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess," he said.

"And I think it is going to be part of the president's job to deal with more than one thing at once."

McCain and Obama had spoken on Wednesday by phone about issuing a joint statement to try to prod along bail-out talks, but McCain jumped ahead by announcing his move first, one that the Obama campaign said caught it completely by surprise.

Bail-out in trouble

McCain and Obama later issued a joint statement urging legislators to co-operate and reach a bail-out agreement to avoid "economic catastrophe".

"This is a time to rise above politics for the good of the country," it said. "We cannot risk an economic catastrophe. Now is our chance to come together to prove that Washington is once again capable of leading this country."

But the rescue is coming under heavy attack from legislators from both parties and Americans are sceptical about bailing out Wall Street with a plan that costs more than the US has sunk into the Iraq war.

The $700bn proposal would have the US treasury buy up bad mortgage-related debts from financial institutions, including US subsidiaries of foreign banks, to try to stem the financial storm.

But many legislators are angry that it will provide a lifeline to Wall Street when homeowners and ordinary Americans are suffering.

'High-risk move'

McCain's moves come at a time when Americans have been telling pollsters they believe Obama would handle the economy better than the Republican, with the latest poll by ABC News and the Washington Post showing a nine-point lead for Obama.

Steven Livingston, professor of political communication at George Washington University in Washington DC, said it was a high-risk move from McCain.

If he insisted on not showing up for the debate on Friday, some of Obama's advisers would make the connection between a "missing McCain" and a missing Bush during a time of crisis, Livingston said.

Bush had been heavily criticised for being "missing" when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, causing severe damage and claiming many lives.

Democrats called for the debate to proceed.

"We need leadership; not a campaign photo op," Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, told McCain in a phone call.

But McCain denied political motivations, telling CBS News that "I don't think, at this time, that we can worry much about politics".

Students angry

The US Commission on Presidential Debates said it would hold the debate on Friday as planned, while the University of Mississippi, host of Friday's debate, said it knew of no postponement plans.

Still, at the University of Mississippi in the town of Oxford, where Friday's debate is supposed to take place, students said they were angry that the event might be postponed.

"John McCain needs to come here and handle this," said Silas Reed, a music student at the university. "It seems like he's trying to pull some kind of stunt."

Amanda Boozer, an international studies student, said McCain was overestimating the need for his presence in Washington to help the bail-out negotiations.

"I understand that he wants to play a central role in helping to fix things but it's important that he is here too."

However, Tyler Craft, the president of the university's Republican party, said McCain just wanted to work in a bi-partisan way to get the crisis resolved.

"He's stepping up and doing his job as a senator," Craft said.

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