By GLEN JOHNSON
The Associated Press
Monday, November 5, 2007; 9:02 PM

BOSTON -- A conservative leader who once expressed concern about Mitt Romney's credentials announced Monday he was backing the Republican presidential contender.

"As he travels across the country, Governor Romney has outlined a blueprint to build a stronger America rooted in our common conservative principles," Paul Weyrich said in a statement. "With a clear conservative vision to move America forward, he will strengthen our economy, our military and our families."

Weyrich is chairman and chief executive officer of the Free Congress Foundation. He helped found the conservative Heritage Foundation and worked with the late Rev. Jerry Falwell to establish the Moral Majority.

Less than a year ago, Weyrich was among the conservative leaders expressing concerns about Romney.

The former Massachusetts governor had conceded that he had changed from supporting abortion rights to opposing them. He also had to deflect criticism after it emerged that he pledged during a 1994 U.S. Senate campaign to be a better advocate for gay rights than his then-opponent, Democrat Edward Kennedy.

"I am concerned and I do think he needs to explain this," Weyrich told The Associated Press last December. "Because he either is or isn't in favor of the homosexual agenda and we need to know before we would get involved in his candidacy."

Romney has since emphasized that he not only opposed gay marriage in 1994, but favors a constitutional amendment to ban it. In 2003, a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalized the practice in his home state.

During the past month, Romney has secured the endorsements of Bob Jones III and Robert Taylor, the grandson of the founder and a top dean at Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C.

Romney, who is seeking to become the first Mormon president, also won the backing of Dr. John Willke, a founder and past president of the National Right to Life Committee, as well as Don Wilton, the immediate past president of the South Carolina Baptist Convention and pastor of a Spartanburg, S.C., megachurch.

Wilton later retracted his endorsement, saying he never intended for word of his support for Romney to become national news.