Round 3: Obama-Romney face foreign policy crunch test

After days of cramming, two intense earlier debates, and a bitter months-long campaign, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will come out swinging on Monday in their third and final showdown.

After days of cramming, two intense earlier debates, and a bitter months-long campaign, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will come out swinging Monday in their third and final showdown.

Democratic-presidential-candidate-US-President-Barack-Obamashakes-hands-with-Republican-presidential-candidate-former-Massachusetts-Gov-Mitt-Romney-during-the-Presidential-Debate-at-the-University-of-Denver-in-Denver-Colorado-AFP-Photo

With this rematch focusing on foreign policy, the president and his Republican rival will no doubt trade blows over security shortcomings in Libya; how to contain Iran; the roiling crisis in Syria; a rising China; and ending the Afghan war.

It will be Romney's best chance to recover from what are seen as mis-steps in criticizing Obama's handling of the September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead.

Romney will be aiming to use the head-to-head clash to press his broader point that the Libya attack and other anti-American violence in the Middle East are signs that Obama's foreign policy is "unraveling before our very eyes."

Romney is a former businessman who appears more comfortable addressing economic problems. He has stumbled at times on international issues, and his foreign tour last summer was widely panned.

But Obama too has issues; a Pew Research Center poll shows his advantage on foreign policy shrinking to just four points over Romney, after being up 15 points in September .

US President Barack Obama with members of the national security team as they receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House. AFP photo