Washington (AP): Barack Obama pushed on with his weeklong theme of highlighting his faith and patriotism while touring traditionally Republican states, calling on a nearly all-black room of churchgoers in Missouri to help fix national and local problems.

Addressing the national meeting of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Louis, one of America's largest and most politically and civically active black denominations, Obama said the U.S. government had an obligation to address ``moral problems'' such as war, poverty and homelessness, and must work with religious institutions to solve them.

Obama repeatedly referred on Saturday to his Christian faith in terms that would be familiar to white evangelicals as well as his black audience.

He hopes to draw more support from evangelical Christian voters than Democratic presidential candidates usually receive, although analysts are skeptical about whether that is possible, considering his support for abortion rights, gay rights and other issues.

Last week, the Illinois senator visited Missouri, Montana, and North Dakota, which have tended to vote Republican, but where Obama thinks he can make inroads.

This week he will be in North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, all southern states that have been dominated by Republicans. But Obama's campaign thinks he might be successful in part because of the large black populations in these states.

Obama, who has made history by becoming the first black major-party presidential nominee, made frequent references to the civil rights movement and continuing struggles in the black community, during the Missouri stop.

Acknowledging that he might be criticized for ``blaming the victim,'' Obama also preached individual responsibility by talking of the need for parents to help children with homework and turn off the TV, to pass on a healthy self-image to daughters, and teach boys to respect women.

His Republican rival, John McCain, who was taking a break from campaigning during the long U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend, got some support from a national veterans group.

Vets for Freedom is spending $1.5 million on television ads that will begin running in July, praising the troop buildup, said Pete Hegseth, the 25,000-member group's chairman, in a telephone interview Saturday.

The ads will feature veterans talking about the accomplishments they've seen since the buildup of U.S. troops in Iraq, which McCain has strongly supported, began in early 2007.

``We need to finish the job no matter who is president,'' the ads say, according to Hegseth.

Though more recently overshadowed by voters' concerns about the sputtering U.S. economy, the Iraq conflict has emerged as a key difference between Obama and McCain. Obama has called the war a mistake and McCain has strongly supported keeping troops in the country.

Obama's stance on the Iraq war took center stage in the campaign Thursday after the Democratic candidate indicated that his talks with military commanders during an upcoming visit to Iraq could refine his policy on the 16-month timetable he has discussed for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq.

His remarks quickly drew criticism from Republicans and others that he was backtracking on his commitment to wind down the war.

In two news conferences on Thursday, Obama said any refinement of his position on Iraq would not be related to his promise to remove combat forces within 16 months of taking office, but rather to the number of troops needed to train Iraqis and fight al-Qaida. But he also acknowledged that the 16-month timeline could indeed slip if removing troops risked their safety or Iraqi stability.

Obama told reporters Saturday that he is ``absolutely committed to ending the war.''

He said he did not misspeak in his comments earlier in the week and suggested the media and critics read unintended significance into the remarks.

``I was a little puzzled by the frenzy that I set off by what I thought was a pretty innocuous statement,'' he told reporters.

Obama has always said his promise to end the war would require consultations with military commanders and, possibly, flexibility.

McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said Obama needs to ``understand that his words matter.''

``We are all absolutely committed to ending this war, but on Thursday Barack Obama's words indicated that he also shared John McCain's commitment to securing the peace beforehand,'' he said.