YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, brought his campaign back into the Rust Belt today in his tour of economically distressed cities.

Mr. McCain told a group of 650 people at a town hall session at Youngstown State University that he would focus on job training and education largely to battle job losses in manufacturing.

Pressed on the North American Free Trade Agreement and industry losses to China, Mr. McCain said he remains committed to free trade and acknowledged most of the lost manufacturing jobs would not be coming back to hard-hit regions like eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania.

But he said that new jobs and a new economy could be developed by supporting the technological sector instead.

Mr. McCain said the two pressing economic issues of high food and gas prices were interrelated and had to be fought with new efforts on alternative energy sources.

Those efforts should include green energy initiatives, such as solar panels and wind power, but he stressed that expanded usage of nuclear power had to be part of the solution.

Asked by reporters to comment on the ongoing Democratic primary race, Mr. McCain claimed he had no horse in the race and was not even sure that Democratic infighting and negative ads would help his campaign.

"I don't have a view on that. There are arguments I've heard on both sides," of whether it helps or hurts his candidacy, Mr. McCain said.