WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2007 (AFP) - US Republican presidential hopeful John McCain moved Sunday to calm controversy over an interview in which he said he would prefer to have the US president be Christian rather than Muslim.

'I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles ... personally, I prefer someone who I know who has a solid grounding in my faith,' said McCain, 72, in an interview posted Saturday on the faith and politics news site Beliefnet.

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - Struggling US presidential candidate Senator John McCain has lost two senior media advisers in the latest blow to his troubled campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The two aides, Russ Schriefer and Stuart Stevens, who worked for President George W. Bush`s successful campaigns in 2000 and 2004, announced their resignation in an e-mail to the senator`s campaign manager, the Journal wrote.