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Sen. John McCain took a Michigan detour on the presidential campaign trail Thursday, hoping to smooth his troubled relations with the domestic carmakers but instead facing new questions about whether he had an inappropriate relationship with a corporate lobbyist.

Thursday morning in Ohio, McCain answered an hour's worth of questions about the allegations -- outlined in a New York Times story published Thursday.

But the campaign later canceled a press conference that had been scheduled at Ford Motor Co.'s Wayne Stamping and Assembly Plant, shooing the media away from the all-but certain Republican presidential nominee as he walked the plant's floor and spoke with workers.

Ford executives showed off hydrogen and ethanol-fueled vehicles to McCain, who has upset the auto industry in the past with proposals to raise fuel-efficiency standards and an endorsement of requests by some states to make regulations even tougher.

Later Thursday, McCain met with top auto executives, including Ford CEO Alan Mulally, Chrysler LLC head Robert Nardelli and General Motors Corp. Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson. Campaign spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan described the meeting as "a good discussion" on topics such as fuel economy and McCain's proposal to put an overall cap on carbon emissions.

But any attempt to reassure Michigan voters of his concern for the industry was overshadowed by the uproar over the Times story.

The long-rumored story centered on McCain's relationship with Vicky Iseman, a lobbyist who represented telecommunications firms.

The Times reported that during McCain's 2000 campaign, aides became concerned that the Arizona senator's close relationship with Iseman would create the impression that he was doing political favors for her clients.

And it reported that John Weaver, a close adviser to McCain, had met with Iseman and asked her to limit her contact with the senator and refrain from telling others in Washington about her close relationship to him.

In a press conference in Toledo, McCain and his wife, Cindy, said they were "disappointed" in the story, and McCain denied that he had either delivered favorable treatment to Iseman's clients or had a romantic relationship with the lobbyist.

"It's just another smear tactic," said Chuck Yob, a Michigan member of the Republican National Committee and an early McCain supporter.

Times Executive Editor Bill Keller defended the paper's reporting Thursday, saying it was appropriate to examine whether McCain's actions had endangered his reputation for avoiding the influence of special interests.

Still, there was some evidence Thursday that the issue might help McCain unify GOP conservatives who have been skeptical of his moderate tendencies.

Conservative talk-show hosts such as Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, who have turned McCain into a target for hard-core conservatives, were instead directing their ire at another favorite target of conservatives: the New York Times.

The Republican National Committee and McCain's campaign each sent out appeals to potential donors Thursday, seeking to play on conservative anger at "the liberal mainstream media."

McCain left the campaign trail in Ohio, which holds a March 4 primary, to meet with top executives of the domestic carmakers at a Troy hotel Thursday where he also was to hold a campaign fundraiser. The meeting and the plant visit earlier in the day were aimed at easing differences between McCain and the automakers over a host of issues.

Ed Sarpolus of Lansing polling firm EPIC-MRA said McCain must convince Michigan workers that he understands their difficulties if he is to have any chance of ending Democrats' four-election presidential winning streak in the state.

"They understand that if he's going to lose, it's going to be because he doesn't understand the economy," Sarpolus said. "George Bush lost here twice because he didn't understand the pain. (McCain) lost the Michigan primary to Mitt Romney because he didn't understand the pain."

McCain has sparred with Detroit automakers since 2002, when he backed a bill to hike fuel efficiency standards by nearly 50 percent by 2016.

He also endorsed efforts by California and 15 other states to impose the first state-by-state vehicle emissions limits. California needs a waiver under the Clean Air Act to impose its requirements, which would require a 43.7 mpg by 2016 -- far above current standards.

The EPA denied California a waiver to do so on Dec. 19 and the states filed suit Jan. 2 to overturn the decision. A Senate bill to reverse the denial has been backed by McCain's two Democratic rivals, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

But McCain has softened his rhetoric in recent weeks, lavishing praise on American automakers after a tour of the North American International Auto Show last month and saying he was "wildly optimistic" about the future of the American auto industry.