Washington: Hitting out at the opponents who accused him of supporting outsourcing and leading to job losses, President George W Bush has said US will plunge into economic isolation if it fails to open its markets.

"Rather than to wall ourselves from the world, and rather to listen to the economic isolationists, we need to level the playing field and open up more markets," he said at a fund-raiser at Charlotte in North Carolina on Sunday (Apr 3, 2004).

Bush, in an apparent reference to the anti-outsourcing campaign unleashed by Democratic Presidential contender John Kerry, said empty promises will not create new jobs.

"In order to make sure this country continues to grow and people can find work at home, we need an energy plan that encourages conservation, that makes our electricity systems more reliable, that encourages clean coal technology, that allows for exploration.

"These are ways to keep jobs here at home, and to make sure the job base expands. But my opponent is against every one of these job-creating measures. Empty talk about jobs and economic isolationism will not get anybody hired," the Republican President seeking re-election said.

"Good trade policy is necessary to keep jobs at home. There is a tendency to say, gosh, the jobs are going overseas, therefore let's isolate ourselves from the world. I think that is a mistake," Bush said.

"Many small businesses rely upon being able to export. Farmers all across the country need to export their product. Rather than isolate ourselves, we ought to take a different policy.

"We ought to make sure the playing field is level for our exports. In the past, we haven't demanded the same openness in other markets," he said.

"Rather than closing our market, we ought to be going to other countries and saying, look, we are going to treat you this way, you need to treat us the same way. You need to have that playing field level for US products. My attitude is, give us a chance to compete and we can out-compete anybody in the world," he said.

"We are not training enough people to fill the jobs of the 21st century. There is a skills gap. And if we don't adjust quickly... don't properly use our community colleges, we are going to have a shortage of skilled workers in the decades to come.

In such a situation, he said, "We are no longer going to be on the leading edge of change. It is going to be hard for our children and grandchildren to find the kind of jobs that will be generated in the world's economy."

"We have got to get it right early in order to make sure we have got a work force that is capable of filling the 21st century jobs," Bush said, pledging to reform the job training programmes.