Washington - Scott McClellan, the former White House spokesman and once a close confidant of President George W Bush, has said he will vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on November 4.

McClellan, who has since fallen out with Bush after sharply criticizing the president in his memoirs this spring, said Obama was best placed to change the way Washington does business, according to excerpts of a CNN interview to be broadcast on Saturday.

McClellan served as White House press secretary from 2003 to 2006. He had been a part of Bush's media team since his days as governor of Texas in the 1990s.

"From the very beginning I have said I am going to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done and I will be voting for Barack Obama and clapping," he said.

McClellan launched a scathing attack on the Bush presidency in his memoirs released in May, writing that he "unknowingly passed along false information" to the media in the run-up to the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

Also Friday, the New York Times endorsed Obama, writing that the Democrat had the "will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nations problems."

"Mr Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change," wrote the Times, which has not endorsed a Republican candidate since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.

Obama has a nearly 3-1 edge over Republican John McCain in daily newspaper endorsements from around the country, according Editor & Publisher. The industry paper had the tally at 127 to 49 on Thursday. Democrat John Kerry only just edged out President George W Bush by 213-205 in 2004.