"It's not amnesty," McCain shot back after Romney criticized his plan for overhauling the immigration system. "You can spend your whole fortune on these attacks ads, my friend, but it's not true."

Earlier, Romney criticized Huckabee for having written that the Bush administration was guilty of an "arrogant bunker mentality" on foreign policy.

"Did you read the article before you commented on it," asked Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor.

"I read the article, the whole article," shot back Romney.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP)—Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee squabbled at close quarters over Iraq on Saturday night in a high-stakes debate, while Sen. John McCain said he, alone had objected to the Bush administration's initial battle plan.

"I supported the president in the war before you did. I supported the surge when you didn't," Huckabee told Romney, the man he defeated in Thursday night's Iowa caucuses.

Romney said he disagreed with Huckabee writing in a recent Foreign Affairs article that the administration's foreign policy suffers from "an arrogant bunker mentality."

Huckabee broke in to demand "Did you read the article—and Romney just as quickly responded that he had.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson readily agreed with Huckabee and McCain that the United States went to war in Iraq with too few troops.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Bush "got the big decision of his presidency right ... when he put us on offense against Islamic terrorists."

The debate unfolded with the six Republican presidential hopefuls arrayed around a semi-circular table, facing moderator Charles Gibson of ABC news.

It was the last debate before the New Hampshire primary, an event that McCain is counting on to propel him back into the race for the White House—and that Romney needs to win to prevent a further unravelling of his candidacy.

Romney walked on stage with his first win under his belt, a triumph in the scarcely-contested Wyoming caucuses. The event drew scant interest among the candidates, but Romney boasted that his win in the Rocky Mountain state was "just the beginning."

A pre-debate poll suggested McCain's momentum had carried him into a lead over Romney in New Hampshire, and that Huckabee scarcely profited from his victory in Iowa. But the results of one election often take several days to show up in surveys in another state.

Taken in the two days following the Iowa caucuses, the poll shows Romney losing ground after the former Massachusetts governor's disappointing second-place showing in the leadoff state; McCain continued his steady climb since the Arizona senator's campaign hit a low point last summer.

Huckabee, the Iowa victor, didn't get a bounce in the survey from his Iowa triumph, meaning the race in New Hampshire has become a two-man fight.

McCain, who won New Hampshire's primary in his first bid eight years ago and wants a repeat, had 33 percent to Romney's 27 percent in the poll. All others trailed by double-digits; Rudy Giuliani had 14 percent while Mike Huckabee had 11 and Ron Paul had 9 in the CNN-WMUR poll.

While the poll was hardly good news for Romney, the results of the Wyoming caucuses were just the opposite. Romney won most of the 12 delegates at stake in the state's Republican county conventions. The candidates largely overlooked the state; Romney gave it more attention than most and that paid off. A win allows him to claim a victory after a searing Iowa loss.

"The people of Wyoming took the first step towards bringing true conservative change to Washington," Romney declared. "This is just the beginning."

Although Wyoming was voting, New Hampshire was the hotbed of presidential politics.

The poll was released as candidates gathered for a Saturday night debate at St. Anselm College, the first of two such face-offs in two days for Republican candidates. A forum is slated for Sunday night. Contrasts are certain to be drawn, particularly between McCain and Romney.

They are running critical TV ads against each other, while language in mailed campaign literature and at campaign events has grown sharper.

Seeking the advantage, Romney is portraying McCain as a Washington insider at a time when the public is craving change, while McCain is casting doubt on whether Romney, a one-term governor, has the foreign policy experience necessary for the White House.

Both McCain and Romney laid claim to the mantle of change earlier Saturday.

"It's one thing to say it; it's another thing to do it," Romney said in Derry, contending that his record in business and government proves he can overhaul a dysfunctional Washington.

McCain, who has a decades-old reputation for challenging the ways of Washington, countered: "I am responsible for the biggest change that has saved American lives." It was a reference to his yearslong call for a strategy, now in place, to increase troops in Iraq where war has raged since March 2003.

Huckabee, for his part, trails his top rivals in New Hampshire and is counting on momentum from his first-place Iowa showing. But mindful that his support may have hit a ceiling in New Hampshire, Huckabee has played down his chances for back-to-back wins and his campaign's focus is shifting more toward South Carolina, home to a bloc of evangelicals like those who pushed the ordained Southern Baptist preacher to victory in Iowa.

Also in the mix, but to lesser degrees, are Giuliani, the former New York mayor, and Paul, the libertarian Texas congressman who opposes the Iraq war. Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, is abandoning the state to focus on South Carolina.

Earlier Saturday, all the candidates made the rounds of restaurants, community centers and schools, engaging in the type of face-to-face campaigning New Hampshire voters demand. For most, talk of religious beliefs and abortion that was prevalent in Iowa gave way to low-tax, smaller-government pitches finely tuned for a state whose voters tend to care more about economics than social issues.

Romney's event in Derry showcased his newly embraced theme—change. One banner read "Washington is broken" while another contained an 11- item "To Do" list beginning with, "Make America Safer," and ending with, "Put people ahead of selfish interest."

Noting that freshman Sen. Barack Obama beat Hillary Rodham Clinton, a second-term senator and former first lady, Romney said Iowans "wanted to see someone who said they would do something new and change Washington." He said Republicans had better take note "or the same thing that happened to Hillary Clinton will happen to our nominee."

"And we cannot afford Barack Obama as our next president. He's a very nice fellow. He's a well-spoken fellow. But he's never done it. It's one thing to say it; it's another thing to do it," Romney said.

In Peterborough, after his 100th New Hampshire town hall meeting, McCain said of Romney: "We have significant differences but those differences will be aired in a positive and respectful manner."

The CNN/WMUR poll surveyed 313 New Hampshire residents who said they will vote in the Republican primary. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

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Associated Press Writers Glen Johnson, Philip Elliott and Holly Ramer contributed to this report.

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