Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Saturday promoted his anti-tax credentials while taking on rival Rudy Giuliani and Democrats over taxes and spending. Romney boasted of his accomplishments as Massachusetts' governor and criticized Giuliani for his legal challenge to a law that allowed presidents to reject specific spending items in the federal budget. As New York's mayor, Giuliani "went all the way to the Supreme Court to eliminate the line-item veto," said Romney, who used such an option 844 times in his state - a fact highlighted in a new direct mail campaign.

Giuliani challenged the law in 1997 because it stopped $200 million intended for New York. The former federal prosecutor successfully argued that the power can only come through a constitutional amendment. Giuliani supports the idea of the line-item veto and has promised to seek an amendment that would allow it.

At the presidential level, the line-item veto was short lived. Congress passed it in 1996, President Clinton used it in 1997, and the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional in 1998.

Giuliani spokesman Jeff Grappone had no immediate comment Saturday to Romney's comments, instead citing former Massachusetts Gov. Paul Cellucci's defense of the ex-mayor last week.

Cellucci told reporters in a conference call arranged by the Giuliani campaign Thursday to respond to Romney's tax and spending charges that the criticism amounted to "pretty weak arguments from a governor who in four years really had no tax cuts for the people of Massachusetts."

Romney, a multimillionaire and former venture capitalist, cites his fiscal record as an important selling point for his candidacy.

"I cut out of the budget over $425 million in spending I thought the state couldn't afford," Romney said of his final budget as governor. He left office with a $2 billion rainy-day fund.

"We need to have someone in Washington who will keep spending down so our country's future remains bright and prosperous," he said. "I want to make it very clear to you that I will absolutely keep our taxes down and lower taxes."

Romney also said Democrats would be poor stewards of federal spending.

"They want to run the largest enterprise in the world. ... It employs millions of people, it has trillions of dollars in budget. They want to run this large enterprise and the key to the future of this enterprise is going to be the strength of our economy," Romney said. "Yet not one of them has ever run anything in the economy."

Written By PHILIP ELLIOTT