Howard Dean ends White House bid

7.45am - By THOMAS FERRARO

BURLINGTON, Vermont - Former Democratic front-runner Howard Dean has pulled the plug on his roller-coaster White House bid.

"Today my candidacy may come to an end -- but our campaign for change is not over," Dean declared in an internet message today to his online backers.

The former Vermont governor delivered the notice shortly before he planned to announce his decision with a speech in his hometown of Burlington.

Dean said while his White House campaign is over, he will turn his internet-based operation, which set fund-raising records and connected with legions of new activists, into a grass-roots force for change.

"There is much work still to be done," Dean said. "This party and this country needs change, and you have already begun that process."

Dean's decision to bow out of the race for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination follows his lopsided loss on Tuesday in the Wisconsin primary -- his 17th defeat without a victory in his party's nominating process.

Democratic front-runner John Kerry won the Wisconsin contest, with Sen John Edwards of North Carolina finishing a close second. Dean was a distant third.

Dean has said Edwards would be a stronger candidate against Republican President George W Bush than Kerry, who he has denounced as "a Washington insider" beholden to special interests.

Dean helped reshape the 2004 White House race by tapping in early to voters' concerns about the war in Iraq, health care and the soaring federal deficit -- energising Democrats and sharpening criticism of Bush.

However, while he soared to the top in the polls last year, he never saw his following translate into victories from voters this year.

- REUTERS