BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) _ An adviser to Barack Obama says his campaign is receptive to John McCain's challenge that Obama join him in 10 town hall meetings with voters before the Democratic National Convention in August.

Obama's campaign manager says the challenge ``is one of the many items'' that will be addressed ''in the coming days.'' He also indicates that the Obama camp would recommend a lengthier and less structured exchange that would be more in line with the historic Lincoln-Douglas debates.

In a letter he sent to Obama Wednesday, McCain says it's time to ``sit down and work out a way that we can have these town hall meetings and have a great debate.''