The defeated Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has given the clearest hint yet that she would like to mount a campaign for 2012 from the comfort of the US Senate.

John McCain's running mate has refused to rule anything out for the future since the Republicans' bruising defeat in last week's presidential election, even as her supporters call for her to be put top of the ticket next time around.

In a CNN interview last night, Ms Palin said that she was still happy to serve as Alaska Governor but admitted that the situation could change "dramatically".

She was referring to the dead-heat Alaska election, still to be decided, between the 84-year-old Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican Senator, and the Democrat Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage.

Mr Stevens was more than 3,000 votes ahead after the main Election Day count last week but yesterday, with 43,000 of 90,000 absentee and postal ballots counted, Mr Stevens dropped three votes behind his challenger. Counting is expected to take another week.

Ironically, Ms Palin's best hope is that Mr Stevens, her Republican colleague, wins the contest because it appears all but certain that he would then be expelled from the Senate. The week before the election, Mr Stevens was convicted on seven felony counts for failing to report more than $250,000 in gifts and he stands to become the first convicted felon every re-elected to the Senate.

If Mr Stevens was ousted, Ms Palin would then, as Governor, have to call a special election, which she would enter as hot favourite. If not, she would have to challenge Alaska's other senator, the Republican Lisa Murkowski, in 2010.

Ms Palin told CNN yesterday that she wants to serve her constituents the best she can: “At this point it is as Governor. Now if something shifted dramatically and if it were, if it were acknowledged up there that I could be put to better use for my state in the US Senate, I would certainly consider that but that would take a special election and everything else.

Pressed in a separate interview with CNN’s Larry King about whether she would serve out her term as Governor, Palin said: “I will do what the people of Alaska want me to do.”

Using an American football term in which the quarterback shouts out to change the play at the last minute, she added: "If they call an audible on me, and if they say they want me in another position, I’m going to do it. ... My life is in God’s hands. If he’s got doors open for me, that I believe are in our state’s best interest, the nation’s best interest, I’m going to go through those doors.”

Ms Palin is due to speak about her party's future later today in an address at the Republican Governors Association meeting in Miami. Speaking to reporters at the meeting yesterday, she said that a woman would be good for the Republican ticket in 2012 - "It would be good for the ticket. It would be good for the party. I would be happy to get to do whatever is asked of me to help progress this nation,” she said.

She is not the only Republican limbering up for a tilt at the nomination after Mr McCain's confirmation this week that he would not stand again for the top job.

Even though there are still more than two months to go before Barack Obama's White House inauguration, two other high-profile Republicans have prompted speculation about the 2012 contest by scheduling campaign-style visits next week to Iowa, the state which holds the nation's first presidential caucus.

First to visit will be Mike Huckabee, the former Alaskan governor who won the Republican caucus in Iowa this time around but ended up losing the nomination to Mr McCain. Mr Huckabee will host two book-signing events in the state on November 20.

Next up will be the Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a 37-year-old Indian American who is considered a rising star in the Republican Party.

Both men deny they are preparing a bid for the 2012 nomination but their denials have failed to convince observers. “Politicians never -- we can’t stress this enough -- go to Iowa accidentally. They know exactly what a trip to Iowa means,” wrote Chris Cillizza, a political blogger on the Washington Post.

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