WASHINGTON -- The debates between President George W. Bush and Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry will take the candidates to three battleground states in the 2004 election -- Florida, Missouri, and Arizona.

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The first debate will be held Sept. 30 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla. The 90-minute event will be moderated by Jim Lehrer, anchor and executive editor of the NewsHour on PBS.

The other two presidential debates -- on Oct. 8 and Oct. 13 -- will be held in St. Louis, Mo., and Tempe, Ariz., respectively.

Charlie Gibson of ABC's "Good Morning America" will moderate the Oct. 13 event -- a town hall-style debate to be held at Washington University.

The St. Louis debate will be the only one with a town-hall forum, with likely voters from the audience, who will be selected by the Gallup Organization, posing the questions.

The debate is to be attended by "soft supporters" of Bush and Kerry, in equal numbers. Questions are to be divided equally between foreign and domestic topics.

Bob Schieffer of CBS News will moderate the Oct. 13 debate at Arizona State University.

"The debates will ensure a productive and fruitful exchange of ideas about the most important issues facing Americans today," the two presidential campaigns said in announcing the debate agreement on Sept. 20.

Dick Cheney and John Edwards, the vice presidential candidates, will also debate on Oct. 5 at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, another hotly-contested state this election year.