In a minor flub during a debate in which both candidates picked their foreign policy words carefully, Gore talked about the new president of Serbia. He meant Yugoslavia.

He referred to attempts by supporters of ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to "ignore the orders of the new president of Serbia."

He meant Vojislav Kostunica, the Yugoslav president. Serbia is the largest republic of Yugoslavia.

For his part, Bush identified Haiti as one of the places in the world where he would withdraw U.S. troops. Actually, the Clinton administration, acting under pressure from Congress, brought nearly all U.S. troops home from Haiti earlier this year.

Gore picked up on this when his turn came, noting, there was "only a handful" of U.S. forces left in Haiti.

Bush wrongly stated during the debate that "the three men who murdered James Byrd ... are going to be put to death."

Byrd was a 49-year-old black man and father of three who was chained to the back of a pickup truck by three white men two years ago and dragged three miles to his death in east Texas. Only two of the defendants were sentenced to death; a third was sentenced to life in prison.

On other matters, Gore touted his support of former President Bush during the Gulf War, noting correctly he was one of a few Democrats to do so.

But he did not mention that during the 1992 campaign, he assailed the former president for his prewar policy regarding Iraq and declared the Gulf War "never should have taken place."

(Copyright 2000 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)