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MIKE Huckabee, the Republican presidential contender, said he considered his rival Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith a religion, not a cult, but questioned whether Mormons believed “Jesus and the devil are brothers.”

Mr Huckabee raised the question in an interview to appear in the New York Times magazine on Sunday, and ignited a new flap in the up-for-grabs race to be the Republican Party’s nominee in the 2008 presidential election.

Mr Huckabee was asked if he considered Mormonism a cult or a religion. “I think it’s a religion,” he said. “I really don’t know much about it.”

Then he asked: “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”

Mr Romney, who has tried to dispel conservative Christians’ worries about the Mormon faith, responded on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday.

“That’s been something that’s been levelled at our church over many, many years and of course that’s been set straight now,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

“I think attacking someone’s religion is really going too far. It’s just not the American way. and I think people will reject that,” he added.

Mr Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, has surged in public opinion polls and is now ahead of Mr Romney in polls in Iowa, which holds its caucus, the first test of the US state-by-state nominating season, on 3 January.

He made the comment before Mr Romney gave a major speech last week trying to dispel fears about his church, known formally as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, particularly among conservative Christians, an important voting bloc.

Mr Romney responded with an attack on Mr Huckabee’s positions on issues such as immigration, and tax and spending. “I think Mike was desperately hoping we would get through this without people taking a close look at his positions and his record,” he said.