Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Safar 22, 1433, Jan 16, 2012, SPA - Republican candidate Jon Huntsman will drop out of the presidential race on Monday and endorse front-runner Mitt Romney, a senior official with the former Utah governor's campaign told CNN. Huntsman finished third in last week's New Hampshire primary, a state in which he had staked his entire campaign, behind Romney and Texas Rep. Ron Paul. "Governor Huntsman did not want to stand in the way of the candidate best prepared to beat Barack Obama and turn our economy around. That's Mitt Romney," the official said. --SPA 13:23 LOCAL TIME 10:23 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/961732