U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Tuesday offered a new plan which includes 52.5 billion U.S. dollars in tax breaks aimed at reducing the impact of stock market losses.

Under the proposal, unveiled in a suburb of Philadelphia, seniors would pay lower taxes when they tap their retirement accounts and people who sell falling stocks could write off more of their losses.

Those who are out of work would no longer be taxed on the unemployment benefits they collect.

And those who make a profit by selling long-held stocks would pay only half the capital gains taxes for the next two years.

"I will help to create jobs for Americans in the most effective way a president can do this -- with tax cuts that are directed specifically to create jobs and protect your life savings," McCain said to a crowd in Montgomery County, Pa.

The senator from Arizona offered the new economic prescriptions a day before he will face Democratic opponent Barack Obama in their final debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Wednesday night.

Polls suggested that the economic distress of the past several weeks has taken its toll on McCain's campaign, which has sunk in national and battleground surveys.

His proposals came a day after Obama offered his own ideas for helping those most affected by sinking stocks, the contracting job market and the falling prices of most homes.

(Xinhua News Agency October 15, 2008)