Mitt Romney quits race

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mitt Romney ended his struggling U.S. presidential bid on Thursday, clearing the way for John McCain to become the all-but-certain Republican nominee and begin mending fences with disgruntled party conservatives.

In an appearance before a conference of conservative activists, Romney said he was ending his bitter nominating duel with McCain to allow Republicans to focus on a November election showdown with the eventual Democratic nominee, either Sen. Hillary Clinton or Sen. Barack Obama.

"I feel I have to now stand aside, for our party and for our country," the former Massachusetts governor told the shocked crowd, some of whom gasped and shouted "no, no" in response.

McCain, who had built an almost insurmountable lead in delegates to the party's nominating convention, pleaded for party unity during an appearance at the same conference a few hours later.

"I know I have a responsibility, if I am, as I hope to be, the Republican nominee for president, to unite the party and prepare for the great contest in November," the Arizona senator told the activists gathered in a Washington hotel.

"And I am acutely aware that I cannot succeed in that endeavor, nor can our party prevail over the challenge we will face from either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, without the support of dedicated conservatives," he said.

Romney pulled out after losing 14 of 21 states on Tuesday, the biggest day of U.S. presidential voting ahead of November's election, while McCain romped to coast-to-coast wins and cemented his position as front-runner.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won five states on Tuesday, remains in the race but will have an almost impossible task overcoming McCain, who has rolled up more than 700 of the 1,081 delegates needed to win the nomination.

McCain, the 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war, has become a target of critics on the right for his moderate views on illegal immigration, his votes against President Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 and his labeling in 2000 of some religious conservative leaders as "agents of intolerance."

McCain's name was booed by some members of the audience when Romney mentioned him, but he drew mostly cheers when he appeared before the crowd, many of them McCain supporters brought in by the campaign.

DRAWS SOME BOOS

He drew boos, however, when he brought up his support during last year's Senate debate for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. McCain has since said border security must come first.

"It is my sincere hope that even if you believe I have occasionally erred in my reasoning as a fellow conservative, you will still allow that I have, in many ways important to all of us, maintained the record of a conservative," McCain told the conference.

"I am proud to be a conservative," he said.

McCain said he had spoken to Romney, congratulated the governor and added they had agreed to sit down together at a later date.