President Barack Obama's campaign has $60 million less than that of Republican rival Mitt Romney, official figures showed Tuesday, following heavy spending on advertising and a fundraising lag.

In a monthly report for July filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama claimed reserves of $124 million divided between the president's campaign and his Democratic Party.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that if Syria were to move or use its chemical weapons it would be a "red line" that would change his perspective on how to respond to the conflict.

Obama said he had not ordered U.S. military intervention "at this point," but warned that the United States was "monitoring the situation very carefully, and we have put together a range of contingency plans.

U.S. President Barack Obama hounded Mitt Romney on Saturday, saying his wealthy rival would pay only one percent in taxes on his vast wealth under a plan authored by his running mate Paul Ryan.

Obama escalated his effort to use the pick of the conservative Republican congressman last week to drive votes away from Romney in swing states, including New Hampshire, where he was campaigning Saturday.

President Barack Obama wished Muslims well on Saturday for the feast of Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

In the United States, Saturday was considered the 30th and final day of the dawn-to-dusk month of fasting this year, and Sunday will mark the start of the feast.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday ribbed scientists behind NASA's roving robot Curiosity, instructing them to let him know right away if they found life on Mars.

"If in fact, you do make contact with Martians, please let me know right away," Obama joked, as he called the scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California from Air Force One.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney vowed to restore American strength and avert "fiscal calamity" Sunday, as his re-energized presidential campaign drew a furious Democratic response.

With campaign battle lines re-forming, surrogates for President Barack Obama took to Sunday talk shows to cast Romney and his new running mate, Paul Ryan, as bent on dismantling cherished entitlements like public health insurance and pensions for seniors.

Israel on Sunday began testing an SMS system for warning the public of an imminent missile attack as chatter over a possible strike on Iran dominated the Israeli press headlines.

As testing began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had chalked up "a significant improvement" in its home front defense capabilities, mentioning its highly-vaunted anti-missile systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow 2.

Mitt Romney and newly minted running mate Paul Ryan hit the road on a bus tour across must-win U.S. states Saturday, selling themselves to voters as the duo who can win the White House and "save the American dream."

Fresh from a surprise early morning rollout of Romney's vice presidential pick in Norfolk, Virginia, the Republican pair struck out across the state pushing a policy of fiscal responsibility and savaging President Barack Obama as a job-killer bent on changing the country for the worse.

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney has chosen Congressman Paul Ryan, known for advocating deep cuts in federal spending, as his running mate, his campaign announced Saturday.

The selection was first made public in a brief email message sent by the campaign to reporters saying that Ryan was Romney's pick for vice president.

Talk of a possible military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities dominated the Israeli press on Friday, a day after Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the issue had become more "urgent."

"(Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and Barak are determined to attack in Iran in the autumn," trumpeted a front-page headline in top-selling daily Yediot Aharonot.