Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney takes questions from supporters during a town hall meeting at the Horry-Georgetown Technical College Grand Strand Conference Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Saturday. [Randall Hill / Reuters]

BEDFORD, New Hampshire - Republican Mitt Romney kept his sights on President Barack Obama on Tuesday as he kicked off a series of events aimed at locking up his front-runner status in the important early voting state of New Hampshire.

The former governor of neighboring Massachusetts spoke to a fired-up crowd of supporters at the historic Bedford town hall.

"You guys need to get out and ask a friend or two to vote for us on primary day," Romney said. "We want to win in New Hampshire."

In his 15-minute-long remarks, delivered with a teleprompter, Romney mentioned Obama's name 20 times.

He attempted to draw a contrast between what Romney called the president's "entitlement society" and massive federal government, and an alternative "merit-based society".

"In a merit-based society, people achieve their dreams through hard work, education, risk-taking, and even a little luck," said Romney, whose father, George Romney, was an auto executive and governor of Michigan.

Obama's re-election campaign quickly responded.

"Only a candidate like Mitt Romney could give a speech like this with a straight face. Governor Romney claims to want to level the playing field to create opportunity, but all his policies do is stack the deck against the middle class," Ben LaBolt, Obama for America press secretary, said in an e-mail.

Romney will tour New Hampshire by bus for the next three days, speaking repeatedly on the subject of jobs and the economy.

He has held a large lead for most of the year in opinion polls in New Hampshire, which holds its first-in-the-nation Republican primary election on Jan 10.

Recent surveys have shown former US house speaker Newt Gingrich cutting into Romney's lead, but Gingrich's surge appears to have stalled as voting day approaches.

Gingrich has told audiences repeatedly that the 2012 presidential contest is the "most important since 1860", and Romney used some of his own hyperbole on Tuesday.

"The battle we face today is more than a fight over our budget, it's a battle for America's soul," he said.

"This is an election not to replace a president but to save a vision of America. It's a choice between two destinies."

Romney did not mention any of his Republican rivals on Tuesday, beyond saying that "any" would make a better president than Obama.

The campaign is also fine-tuning its ground assault before the primary, holding phone banks Monday through Saturday and planning a "Super Saturday" organizing event on Dec 31.

Romney has won endorsements from most of New Hampshire's Republican heavy hitters, some of whom will campaign for him on Wednesday, including US Senator Kelly Ayotte and former governor John H. Sununu, a campaign aide said.

Reuters