Texas Governor Perry running for president

CHARLESTON: Ending months of speculation, conservative Texas Governor Rick Perry declared online Saturday that he is running for president, becoming the latest Republican candidate to mount a 2012 White House challenge.

"With faith in God, the support of my family and an unwavering belief in the goodness of America, I am a candidate for president of the United States," Perry announced in a statement on his website about an hour ahead of his expected live declaration in a speech in South Carolina.

"America's place in the world is in peril, not only because of disastrous economic policies, but from the incoherent muddle known as our foreign policy," said the three-term governor, who succeeded George W. Bush in the job after Bush won the White House.

In his statement, Perry took a further swipe at President Barack Obama, saying the Democrat "has thumbed his nose at traditional allies such as Israel and Great Britain."

"We will not sit back and accept our current misery, because a great country requires a better direction, because a renewed nation requires a new president," Perry added.

He also railed against big government, stressing that "I will work every day to make Washington, DC as inconsequential in your lives as I can."

The 61-year-old US Air Force veteran plunged into the crowded Republican pool like a cannonball, threatening to sink the candidacies of lesser known contenders.

Though his announcement came less than six months before the first primary elections, Perry was immediately considered among the frontrunners, alongside former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and US congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011