Obama says Wall St bailout may cut his energy plan

OXFORD, Mississippi (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Friday that if elected he might have to scale back his plan for energy investment to help pay for a proposed $700 billion financial market bailout.

"I want to make sure that we are investing in energy in order to free ourselves from dependence on foreign oil. Now, that is a big project. That is a multi-year project," Obama said in a televised debate with Republican rival John McCain.

"I'm not willing to give up the need to do it, but there may be individual components of it that we can't do," Obama said in the first of three presidential debates ahead of the November 4 election.

Obama did not give details on what part of his energy plan might have to be cut, but he added "we're not going to be able to do everything" because of the high cost of the bailout.

The U.S. Congress is trying to hammer out a $700 billion rescue plan with the Bush administration to prevent the financial industry crisis from worsening and engulfing the U.S. economy.

Obama said he wanted to free the United States from reliance on Middle East oil imports within 10 years by boosting U.S. oil production, investing in alternative energy sources and building more fuel efficient cars.

McCain said he would eliminate federal ethanol subsidies to help cover the cost of the Wall Street bailout.

(Reporting by Tom Doggett, Editing by Frances Kerry)