Whether or not Republican presidential candidate John McCain is elected next week, his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, plans to remain on the US national political scene, ABC News reported on Wednesday.

Asked about 2012, whether she was discouraged by daily attacks on the campaign trail and whether she would return home to Alaska, the Republican vice-presidential nominee signaled that she expects to be a player in the next presidential election cycle.

"I think that, if I were to give up and wave a white flag of surrender against some of the political shots that we've taken ... I'm not doing this for naught," Palin told ABC News in a taped interview airing yesterday.