Washington: US Democratic Presidential hopeful John Kerry will try, if elected, to end or discourage outsourcing of American jobs to countries like India through a four-point programme. The four-point programme has been published by Kerry's election campaign managers.

"Use Government contracts for US Workers" reads the heading for the first measure that Kerry proposes. "Some States have begun outsourcing Government contracts. For example, New Jersey has outsourced Government services to help move from welfare to work. The idea of using taxpayer Dollars to send entry-level service jobs overseas to administer a programme aimed at finding domestic entry-level service jobs for welfare recipients makes no sense," it says. John Kerry would try to ensure that as far as possible US workers perform the federal Government contracts.

He would get the procurement policies examined and try to prevent the outsourcing of federal contracts. "Stop giving Government Contracts to Corporations Breaking the Rules" says the second proposal. "John Kerry will also make sure the federal Government does not give lucrative contacts to companies that have a record of accounting fraud - like WorldCom - or are moving offshore."

"Consumers Right to Know on Call Centre Workers" is the rubric of the third proposal. "In today's economy, consumers increasingly use the telephone or Internet to buy goods and services, inquire about transactions and bills, and get technical support or other information. More than 70 per cent of customer interaction occurs in call centres and an estimated six million Americans work in call centres," it says.

It claims that the US has lost 250,000 call centre jobs since 2001 to countries like India, Vietnam and the Philippines. Kerry would try to keep jobs on the booming call centre market in America, and help provide a measure of security for telephone and Internet consumer transactions. "He believes that consumers should have a right to know where they are calling.