Presidential candidate Senator John Kerry on Friday proposed ending "corporate inversions" as he unveiled details of his economic policy proposals.

And he said companies would be allowed to return billions of dollars of untaxed profits to the US at a discounted tax rate.

This cash raised by the US Government would then be used as an incentive for corporations to keep jobs in the US instead of looking for cheaper labour elsewhere.

Democrat Kerry did not mention Bermuda by name this time, but he has been attacking the Island and other offshore jurisdictions as part of his electoral campaign for the most part of this year.

He has vowed to crack down on so-called "Benedict Arnold" firms, who move offshore to save money (Arnold is well-known in the US as a traitor).

The senator from Massachusetts has hit out at companies such as Tyco International Inc. and Nabors Industries Inc. which he claimed moved to low- or zero-tax countries such as Bermuda to reduce their tax rate while continuing to operate primarily in the US ? and considers this unfair practice.

Last week Tyco shareholders yesterday rejected a proposal to reincorporate in the US after the company said the move would raise its tax rate to as much as 37 percent from 28 percent.

Kerry proposed using proceeds generated by a one-time opportunity to return $639 billion in untaxed foreign profits to the US at a discounted rate of ten percent to establish a tax credit for companies that create US jobs in certain industries.

Kerry last year opposed a similar plan for US corporations, voting against a proposal twice that would create a one-time tax holiday to return overseas profits never taxed by the US at an 85 percent discount rate.

The main thrust of Kerry's speech in Detroit on Friday said he would help create ten million jobs in the US over four years by ending incentives for corporations to invest overseas and giving tax credits to those that hire in the US.

"We have a tax code that does more to reward companies for moving overseas than it does to reward them for creating jobs here in America," said Kerry at Wayne State University in Detroit. "If I am president, it will end."

Kerry promised to reverse the 2.2 million jobs lost since President George W. Bush took office in 2001 and said he would reverse US tax policy allowing companies to defer US taxes on their profits in other countries.

The jobs being lost to call centres overseas has been a hot issue in the election campaign, and has become confused with corporate inversions along the way.

Kerry said that in exchange, he proposes cutting the 35 percent corporate tax rate to 33.25 percent and allow a one-year tax holiday to return $639 billion in foreign profits never taxed by the US at a one-time rate of ten percent, according to a fact sheet from his campaign.

The fact sheet said Kerry would require companies to pay taxes on their international income as they earn it rather than being allow to defer it. The new system would apply to profits earned in future years only, not retroactively.

He also would allow companies to defer taxes when they located a business in a foreign country that serves that nation's markets. So a US company seeking the tax break could open a car factory in India to sell cars in India, for example, but could not relocate abroad to sell cars back to the United States or Canada.

And Kerry's campaign estimates that the change would save $12 billion a year. The savings would be used to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 33.25 percent ? a five percent reduction.