RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nevada Republicans cheered Saturday as former
presidential hopeful Mitt Romney urged support for John McCain - but Ron Paul got even louder applause at the state GOP convention as he delivered his message of individual freedom and fiscal responsibility.

Romney, who trounced all other Republican contenders by getting 52 percent in Nevada's precinct straw polls, said his job now is to make sure McCain wins the presidency.

Romney also said he's not stumping for McCain to improve his odds of having his former rival pick him as his running mate.

Speaking to more than 1,300 convention delegates, Romney praised
McCain as "a man who has been tested and proven, a man who knows
how to strengthen our economy, a man who knows how to help us
defeat radical jihadists and terrorists throughout the world."

Romney also hailed McCain's support of lower taxes as a way to
help a sagging national economy.

Paul drew raucous cheers and applause as he said he will stay in
the presidential race and focus on goals of limiting the size and power of the federal government and protecting constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons was applauded by convention delegates as he described the budget cuts that have been imposed to deal with a looming state revenue shortfall of more than $900 million - and promised that he wouldn't support increased taxes to resolve the budget crisis.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-04-26-08 1921EDT