AMHERST, N.H. (AP) – The day after a helicopter crash that killed 17 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Lieberman said more American troops should be sent to the area.

Lieberman, who received a formal endorsement Sunday from activists who helped Republican John McCain win the 2000 New Hampshire Primary, called it another political viewpoint he shares with the Arizona senator.

“We have to be ready to make the unpopular political decision,” he said. “I agree with McCain again, we have to send over some more American troops, now, to protect the ones that are there.”

He also favors rotating out the current occupying forces- who he says were cheated by extended stays overseas.

The Connecticut senator said President Bush has failed to line up support from foreign troops and the 130,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq need it, now.

“We need help and we should make sure help is on the way to them soon,” Lieberman said. “And it’s gotta be American help.”

More than 400 Americans now have been killed in Iraq, more than half of them since the president declared an end to major military operations there.

McCain, who dropped out of the president race in March 2000, after beating Bush in New Hampshire, is co-chairman of Bush’s re-election campaign in Arizona. But Lieberman predicted he will look back on the day of the McCain-backer endorsement as a turning point for his candidacy.

A recent poll shows Lieberman with 4 percent of the vote from likely Democratic voters in New Hampshire. He calls himself a moderate Democrat and hopes to sway independents or undeclared voters, who make up 38 percent of the state’s registered voters and can vote in the Democratic primary.

The Connecticut senator ticked off the political issues he and McCain have joined forces on: combating global warming, campaign finance reform and closing corporate tax loopholes.

“Am I correct in saying that what’s happening today, is that the McCainiacs are becoming Liebermaniacs?” Lieberman asked a dozen McCain supporters in the parking lot of an Amherst diner.

More than 40 of the supporters are creating a steering committee to persuade other McCain supporters to back Lieberman. Many of those who stood by McCain are independents, who say Lieberman and McCain share the same values system and ability to “Straight Talk”.

Randy Dirth, a lifelong Republican, said he now stands by Lieberman.

“Lieberman’s really the most centrist of candidates,” he said. “He has a proven track-record of judicious, wise leadership and a willingness to stand up for what he believes in, regardless of partisan politics.”

Lieberman has consistently backed the war in Iraq, voting to give President Bush the authority to go to war and, more recently, to spend another $87 billion on the military and reconstruction.

AP-ES-11-16-03 1507EST