Washington - Republican presidential hopeful John McCain blasted US dependence on foreign oil for effectively bankrolling undemocratic regimes and called Tuesday for the United States to allow greater exploration off its own shores.

McCain said that money for oil was going to hostile states and supporters of terrorism in the Middle East, leaving the US in a dangerous and vulnerable position.

"Oil revenues are enriching the enemies of the United States and potentially limiting our own options in containing the threat they present," McCain said in a broad speech on energy policy in Houston, Texas.

Energy has quickly become a hot topic in the US presidential race, as security concerns have linked up with economic worries. Americans are feeling the pinch of high petrol and utility costs in an already- slowing US economy.

"In effect, our petrodollars are underwriting tyranny, anti- Semitism, the brutal repression of women in the Middle East and dictators and criminal syndicates in our own hemisphere," McCain said. "We cannot allow the world's greatest democracy to be complicit in such corruption and injustice."

The 71-year-old Arizona senator called for lifting a federal moratorium on drilling for oil off the coasts of the United States - in Florida, California and other states - to help relieve the immediate energy burden and slowly wean the country off its dependence on oil from foreign countries.

McCain's proposal was criticized by presidential rival Barack Obama and other Democrats who argued that offshore drilling will harm the environment and tourism, and that in any case US oil reserves are too small to effectively reduce petrol prices.

A broad moratorium has been in place since 1990, banning new licences for offshore drilling except in the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and off parts of Alaska.

McCain said the US could no longer afford to maintain the moratorium with energy costs at all-time highs, though he stopped short of endorsing drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - a key dispute between the two US political parties.

All states should be allowed to authorize drilling in ways "consistent with sensible standards of environmental protection," McCain said.

In a statement, Obama charged that McCain had opposed drilling in the past and said that "his decision to completely change his position ... was the same Washington politics that has prevented us from achieving energy independence for decades."

Florida Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, said in a conference call with reporters that allowing drilling platforms off the coast would "ruin" the state's 65-billion-dollar tourism economy, while oil companies already had extra drilling licences in the Gulf Coast that were not being exploited.

Democrats in Congress have sought favour with voters by pushing for a windfall profits tax on the record earnings of the five largest US oil firms, but the measure was blocked last week by Republicans.

McCain also pushed for greater investments in renewable energy and nuclear power, and reiterated his support for a cap-and-trade system that would cut the greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for global warming. (dpa)