11:28 AM EDT on Monday, April 19, 2004

By MIKE GLOVER / Associated Press Writer

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry on Monday criticized President Bush’s efforts to build international relations and continued to call for bringing more countries into the effort to stabilize Iraq.

“Every president of the last century did a better job than this president” in building relationships with other nations, Kerry said during a breakfast where he raised $250,000 for his campaign. “I know I can make America stronger, safer and more secure.”

One of Kerry’s former rivals for the nomination, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., joined Kerry for a rally at Palm Beach before Kerry took his campaign to Atlanta. Lieberman is likely to play an important role in Kerry’s bid to win the state that decided the 2000 election for Bush, largely because he has a strong following in Florida’s Jewish community.

Kerry, who contended he had a “100 percent record” in support of Israel, said he would end what he called a “sweetheart relationship” that allows money to flow from Arab countries to terrorists.

“We need a president who’s prepared to stand up and lead the world to a more responsible place to create an entity to make peace within the Middle East,” he said.

During a noisy rally before thousands of students at the University of Miami on Sunday, Kerry accused Bush of misleading not only the country but “even members of his own administration about what he was planning to do in Iraq.”

“The American people, with respect to issues of war and peace, are owed the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” he said.

Kerry sat for a one-hour interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” where he repeated his pledge to create 10 million jobs and cut the deficit in half within four years if he wins the White House. He conceded that soaring deficits might make him scale back some proposals.

In the interview, Kerry said Bush “misled America” by rushing to war. He pledged to build an international coalition while continuing to prosecute the war—increasing troop levels if needed -- because stability in Iraq is essential.

The problems in Iraq are only part of a foreign policy by Bush that has left the nation isolated, Kerry said.

“I think this administration has proven, frankly, stunningly ineffective in diplomacy,” he said.

Kerry cited Bush’s policy change on Israel last week in which he endorsed a plan by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to hold on to lands seized in the 1967 Middle East War. “There were Arab leaders that were taken by surprise by this announcement,” Kerry said, although he also said he endorsed the move.

“I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration,” he said. “Within weeks of being inaugurated I will return to the U.N. and I will rejoin the community of nations.”

Kerry rejected the suggestion that he’s been inconsistent on Iraq. He voted to authorize the use of force but against spending an extra $87 billion on the war, a topic included in Bush campaign commercials.

Kerry noted that Bush had threatened to veto the $87 billion bill if it included money to pay for health care for reservists and required Iraq to pay back some of the money set aside for its reconstruction.

“Think of that. The president threatened to veto that bill, and yet he is now accusing me for voting no,” he said.

The Vietnam War veteran said he supports the long-term goal of stability in Iraq, but the American public’s patience may wear thin.

“If we are stuck for a long period of time in a quagmire where young Americans are dying without any sense of that (stability) being able to be achieved, I think most Americans will decide that’s failure,” Kerry said.

He also defended his argument that the fight against terrorism is more than just a military operation.

“You need the best intelligence, the best law enforcement cooperation in the world,” he said. “I will not hesitate to use those forces effectively. I think I could fight a far more effective war on terror.”

Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot responded, “This conditional support for the troops that John Kerry voted to send to Iraq in the first place demonstrate a disturbing lack of judgment.”

Asked if he stood by statements he made in 1971 about his actions in Vietnam and those by other veterans, Kerry said he now believes that using the word “atrocities” had been inappropriate and excessive. His language at the time reflected his anger, he said.

Steve Schmidt, a spokesman for Bush’s re-election campaign, said Kerry’s TV appearance “was filled with inaccuracies, attacks and pessimism toward the future of the country.”

(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)