Vice President Al Gore on Monday called for a new war on cancer, vowing in a major campaign speech to more than double funding for cancer research if he is elected president.

"My commitment to this fight is personal--and absolute," declared Gore, who lost his only sibling, an older sister who smoked, to lung cancer in 1984.

The vice president's call to double funding for cancer research within the National Institutes of Health is noteworthy in part because (President) Clinton has been criticized on Capitol Hill by some members of both parties for not giving the agency more money this year. Led by Sens. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), many have called for a doubling in funding for NIH research into all diseases.