( dpa ) - Republican conservative Mitt Romney took a shot Tuesday at France and the rest of Europe, ending his presidential bid with a warning that the United States risks becoming a second-class power with "eroded morality."
Romney's slap came as he announced the end of his candidacy for the Republican nomination and, in a parting shot, urged the party to uphold what he called conservative values.
"I'm convinced that unless America changes course, we could become the France of the 21st century," he said in Washington. "Still a great nation, but not the leader of the world, not the superpower. And to me that's unthinkable."
Romney, who wanted to become the first Mormon president of the US, drew a cultural contrast with Europe, which he portrayed as a decadent, secular place with low birth rates.
" Europe is facing a demographic disaster," he said. "That's the inevitable product of weakened faith in the creator, failed families, disrespect for the sanctity of human life, and eroded morality."
In a sweeping call for the US to bolster its economic and military strength, he warned that Asia or China could overtake the US as the world's economic superpower "if we don't change course."
"We face economic competition unlike anything we have known before," he said in his withdrawal speech.
He called for a stronger effort to break US dependence on foreign oil, portraying the presidents of crude-producing Russia, Venezuela and Iran as foes strangling the United States.
"Simply put, America must never be held hostage by the likes of Putin, Chavez and Ahmadinejad," he said.