Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, who had earlier denounced as 'traitors' CEOs of US companies outsourcing to countries like India and China, acknowledged that the practice is here to stay but promised a level-playing field for the American worker.

The third and final debate of the 2004 US Presidential cycle saw President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry clash sharply over the issue of outsourcing of US jobs.

Kerry, the veteran Massachusetts senator, blasted Bush saying, "President Bush is the only US President in 72 years to lose jobs -- 1.6 million jobs lost."

"He's the only President to have incomes of families go down for the last three years; the only President to see exports go down; the only President to see the lowest level of business investment in our country as it is today," Kerry claimed.

"The wages of Americans have gone down. The jobs that are being created in Arizona right now are paying about $13,700 less than the jobs that we're losing," Kerry said.

The Massachusetts senator, however, acknowledged that outsourcing could not be stopped.

"Outsourcing is going to happen. I've acknowledged that in union halls across the country. I've had shop stewards stand up and say, 'Will you promise me you're going to stop all this outsourcing?' And I've looked them in the eye and I've said, 'No, I can't do that.'

Kerry, however, said that he would make certain that with respect to the tax system American workers are not subsidizing the loss of their own job.

"Today, if you're an American business, you actually get a benefit for going overseas. You get to defer your taxes. So if you're looking at a competitive world, you say to yourself, 'Hey, I do better overseas than I do here in America.' That's not smart. I don't want American workers subsidizing the loss of their own job," said Kerry.

"And we are going to have a manufacturing jobs credit and a job hiring credit so we actually help people to be able to hire here," he said.

Kerry promised to ensure a level-playing field for the American worker and fight for his job as hard as he fights for his own job.

"What I can promise you is that I will make the playing field as fair as possible, that I will, for instance, make certain that with respect to the tax system that you as a worker in America are not subsidizing the loss of your job," he said.

The Democratic challenger said: "The second thing we can do is provide a fair trade playing field. The President didn't stand up for (American-built) Boeing when (European-built) Airbus was violating international rules and (giving) subsidies. He discovered Boeing during the course of this campaign after I had been talking a bout it for months".

Kerry also called for fiscal discipline.

With inputs from PTI