The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. € Debating on decidedly conservative turf, GOP presidential hopefuls defended all-male schools and displaying the Confederate flag yesterday and talked tough about cutting government and confronting Cuba. Three ganged up to label Bob Dole a chronic tax-raiser hooked on negative campaigning.

''Don't malign my integrity here,'' was Dole's aggressive retort on taxes. He recalled his Senate role enacting Ronald Reagan's tax cuts and fighting President Clinton's 1993 tax increase.

The combative lunch-hour debate brought the four leading Republican hopefuls together just two days before South Carolina's primary € a must-win event in Dole's comeback strategy and the scene-setter for voting in nine states on Tuesday.

There was no doubt that the candidates recognized the stakes, often interrupting to rebut rivals. Nor was there any doubt that the campaign had shifted to the solidly conservative South.

Dole, Pat Buchanan, former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander and publisher Steve Forbes agreed, for example, that South Carolina's Citadel should have been allowed to remain an all-male military academy and not forced to admit a woman.

And all four said states should be able to decide whether to fly the Confederate battle flag € as South Carolina does above its statehouse. Georgia and Mississippi incorporate the design into their state flags.

On the flag question, Buchanan said that if American culture had room for the civil rights ballad ''We Shall Overcome,'' ''there has got to be room for 'Dixie' as well.''

Later, all four also appeared at a Christian Coalition ''God and Country'' rally to court religious conservative voters. Forbes and Alexander had the toughest task there; both were labeled ''pro-abortion'' in a newspaper ad run by the National Right to Life Committee. Buchanan was the crowd favorite, but Dole also had solid support in the audience.