BUSAN, South Korea (CP) - The federal Liberals have zeroed in on a strong economy as an antidote to voter anger over the sponsorship scandal, with Prime Minister Paul Martin signalling Thursday that economics will be the centrepiece of his re-election bid.

His government's collapse is still likely more than a week away, but Martin has already declared what he believes will be the ballot-box question.

"I think the primary issue will be the Canadian economy - which is going very well - and Canadians' desire to see it continue," Martin told reporters before a two-day APEC summit.

The Liberal theme for the coming election is a return to familiar ground for Martin, who built his political reputation as finance minister and whose best-known accomplishment remains eliminating the federal deficit in the 1990s.

Economics played a surprisingly marginal role in the last election campaign. Eager to shed a one-dimensional image as a numbers man, Martin focused on social issues like health care, child care, same-sex marriage and the Charter of Rights.

But earlier this week, the government laid the groundwork for a strikingly different campaign with a fiscal statement that promised $30 billion in tax cuts and $9 billion in spending on so-called prosperity items like education and corporate tax relief.

Martin's electoral success will depend largely on whether voters buy into the Liberal economic plan and look beyond the party's enduring disgrace: the sponsorship scandal spelled out in the recently released Gomery report.

The Conservatives, Bloc Quebecois and NDP have hammered the government over the scandal each day in the House of Commons and will clearly carry on throughout the campaign.

"Canadians will have to decide which party is best positioned to clean up the mess which has been created in Ottawa," Harper said. "This election will offer between old-style politics and sweeping new reforms."

"The opposition will certainly talk about (sponsorships) because they have nothing else to say," Martin said, delivering an early taste of what may become a daily theme of his campaign.

The Conservatives are widely expected to offer significant tax cuts during the election, although details of the Tory plan are still under wraps.

Harper has hinted that the government will likely collapse in a non-confidence vote on Nov. 28. That would mean an election on Jan. 9 at the earliest, but the government can extend the vote date.

The prime minister hinted Thursday he might do that. Some have suggested the campaign could be suspended several days for Christmas and New Year's. But Martin indicated other dates might also need to be looked at.

"Talking about the holiday season, there are also other religions that have their New Year's and holidays at a different date. I think we've got to be respectful of that," he said. "The Orthodox church is an example."

But the prime minister's opponents noted that his own preferred election timetable would have butted up against a variety of cultural or religious holidays.

Martin had committed to calling an election around March 1, which would have prompted an election campaign around the same time as Christianity's Orthodox Sunday, the Jewish holiday Purim, Buddhism's Magha Puja Day, Sikhism's Hola Mohalla, and three Hindu holidays: Holi, Ramayana and the Hindu new year.

As for Canada's economic performance, the prime minister rattled off a series of accomplishments: the country's lowest unemployment rate in three decades, strong exports, federal budget surpluses and billions invested in education.

An internal Liberal memo obtained earlier this week by The Canadian Press encourages party members to compare the country's economic status to where it was when the government took office in 1993.

The prime minister's visit to the Asia-Pacific summit began with an emotional stop at a cemetery that holds the bodies of 378 Canadian veterans of the Korean War.

Martin paused to lay a wreath by a statue - a replica of a similar monument in Ottawa - of a Canadian soldier holding children clutching maple leaves.

The prime minister said he was too young to properly recall the Second World War but still has the most vivid memories of the day the Korean War began.

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