US Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry reaffirmed in his victory speech in Wisconsin that he would clamp down on so-called tax-loopholes and companies that moved overseas ? to places like Bermuda.

And the anti-offshore rhetoric appears to have moved several points up his agenda with the speech getting into Benedict Arnold territory earlier than usual.

"We will repeal the tax loopholes and benefits that reward Benedict Arnold CEOs and companies for shipping American jobs overseas," he said as his eight line of his victory speech on Tuesday night. "Instead, we will provide new incentives for good companies that create and keep good jobs here in America."

Just last week it the Benedict Arnold CEO's were in the 19th sentence of his speech and at the beginning of February were in the 17th sentence, before the Tenesse/Virginia primary night. And in Iowa it was the 28th sentence in his victory speech.

In Iowa he said: "And if I am President, we will scrub the tax code, which has exploded from 14 pages to 17,000 pages of loopholes and special interest provisions, to remove every single provision that gives a benefit or a reward to any Benedict Arnold CEO or corporation for sending jobs or profits overseas ? and sticks you with the bill."

Kerry, of Massachusetts, moved a step closer toward securing the Democratic party's nomination for president after a narrow victory in Wisconsin's primary. Kerry received 34 delegates after collecting 40 percent of the votes in the Badger State, according to MSNBC. The four-term senator has amassed 608 delegates since he won the Iowa caucuses on January 19.

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who has won only the South Carolina primary, received 24 delegate votes for a total of 190 after finishing second in Wisconsin and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean picked up 15 delegates on Tuesday for a total to date of 201.

To secure the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention in July, a candidate needs to amass 2,162 delegates out of a possible 4,322.

Pledged candidates are selected by voters during the state's nomination process. Unpledged delegates, which includes selected officials and party leaders, are not part of the primary and caucus process, but they can vote for the candidate of their choice.

Mr. Kerry said on Tuesday night: "Every week, the message is ringing out loud and clear: change is coming to America."

And he added: "We reject the view that the job of a President is just to drive up the stock market. We believe the job of a President is to put America back to work. We will insist on worker and environmental protections in every trade agreement ? because on a fair playing field, Americans can compete with anyone in the world."

Kerry has been loudly denouncing US companies moving offshore to save on their taxes calling them "Benedict Arnold" firms ? after the notorious American traitor.

The name of Benedict Arnold, a general in the American war for independence who switched his allegiance to the British, is a common epithet meaning traitor

The Bermuda inversion issue, as it has come to be known, appears to raise its head every year, and it has taken just a month into 2004 to become an issue in the US Presidential election campaign. Democratic front-runner Howard Dean said during a debate last month that America needs a president "who doesn't think that big corporations who get tax cuts ought to be able to move their headquarters to Bermuda and their jobs offshore."

Kerry introduced a bill in November requiring service representatives to disclose their physical location each time a customer calls to make a purchase, inquire about a transaction or ask for technical support in a bid to find out just who they are dealing with.

The proposal targets the increasingly popular decisions by companies to move their call centres overseas to capitalise on low labour costs. After his victory in the Iowa caucuses last month, Kerry railed against federal tax incentives to companies that outsource jobs.

"We are not going to give one benefit or one reward to any Benedict Arnold company or chief executive officer who take jobs and money overseas and stick you with the bill. That's over," he said.