WASHINGTON - John Kerry says he stands by his claim that some foreign leaders privately support him against President Bush. The White House, casting doubt on the Democrat's credibility, suggested he was lying.

"I'm not making anything up at all," Kerry told The Associated Press in an interview Monday, accusing Republicans of "trying to change the subject" from jobs, health care and other issues.

In a telephone interview, the Massachusetts senator and presumptive Democratic nominee said "it's no secret" that some countries are "deeply divided about our foreign policy. We have lost respect and influence in the world."

He continued: "I stand by my statement. The point is not the leaders. What's important is that this administration's foreign policy is not making us as safe as we can be in the world."

Kerry was heading to West Virginia on Tuesday to meet with fellow veterans and await the results of the presidential primary in Illinois, but the subject of his talks with world leaders was likely to follow him to the Mountain State. He already has won more than enough Democratic convention delegates to win the presidential nomination.

Kerry said at a Florida fund-raiser last week that he's heard from some world leaders who quietly back his candidacy and hope he is elected in November. Kerry has declined to identify them, saying to do so would betray confidences.

Three times Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan charged that Kerry was "making it up." His reaction came one day after Secretary of State Colin Powell called on Kerry to name names, but made no accusations.

"Either he is straightforward and states who they are, or the only conclusion one can draw is that he is making it up to attack the president," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

He also took issue with Kerry's suggestions that the administration held up for political purposes the announcement of an agreement with Libya to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction; and that the administration had rebuffed offers from Russia and France to avert the Iraq war.

"This is not the first time he has refused to back up his assertions," McClellan said.

In response, Kerry's campaign issued a list of statements by Bush administration officials it portrayed as falsehoods, including the assertions that Iraq had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and the prediction that tax cuts would create jobs.

The campaign also wondered why the White House press secretary was doing the work of the re-election campaign.

"The White House would be better off spending its time repairing our alliances around the world so we can collectively fight the war on terrorism and better protect the United States, rather than using the White House press room as a place to carry out political attacks," Kerry's campaign said.

Kerry's visit Tuesday to Huntington and Charleston reflects West Virginia's newfound importance on the electoral map. Once considered reliable territory for Democrats, the state voted for Bush over Al Gore in 2000.

In the AP interview, Kerry said Bush forgot his pledge to preserve West Virginia steel jobs when he rolled back tariffs he previously had applied on foreign steel. He also said Bush has reneged on his vow to invigorate the state's coal economy by helping the industry adopt cleaner technology.

"I don't think West Virginians appreciate broken promises," Kerry said. "West Virginia deserves the attention of a presidential candidate who cares."

He blamed Gore's loss in West Virginia on his failure to respond to Republican criticisms of his stance on gun control in the state, where hunting and legal firearm ownership are part of the social fabric.

Kerry said that won't happen to him. "I'm a gun owner. I've been a hunter since I was about 12 years old," he said. "My position is very clear. I support the Second Amendment."

On Monday, Democrat Al Sharpton formally endorsed Kerry for president, though without ending his own campaign. Sharpton said he hoped to continue winning delegates to help shape the party's platform.

WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- "Never in human history," reluctantly concludes Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, addressing the case made for the United States invasion and occupation of Iraq, "have so many been so mislead by so few."


This is Jack Murtha, who left college during the Korean War to enlist as a private in the United States Marine Corps, and who later, as a 33-year-old husband and father of three, volunteered to fight in combat in Vietnam, where he was twice wounded and received the Bronze Star with combat "V," two Purple Hearts and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

Nobody -- not even the most conservative commando with the biggest flag lapel pin in the House Republican leadership -- dares to suggest that Jack Murtha is "soft" personally or politically on communists, terrorists or any enemy of America. He is recognized as the knowledgeable and informed Democratic hawk on defense in the House, whose counsel and support have been highly valued by presidents, national security advisors and defense secretaries in both parties.

Twice Murtha, in the House, voted to back invasions of Iraq by a president named Bush. Today, recently back from a return inspection visit there, Murtha is upset and angry about Iraq, its future and the well-being of this nation's military men and women their civilian leadership have stationed there.

"We're still at 50 percent unemployment (in Iraq)," states Murtha. "We're still -- a year later -- below the prewar levels of energy production."

The Bush administration keeps changing signals in Iraq. "First, Iraq had to have a new constitution before it had elections and no involvement from the United Nations, thank you," notes Murtha. "Then they had to do a U-turn on that to bring in the U.N. and to postpone both the constitution and the elections." But what angers this Pennsylvania Democrat, who Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni has called "a savvy man of action," is the lack of an administration answer to the important question: "Whom are we going to turn it over to in Iraq?"

"Ever since I was a young boy," Murtha has written, "I had two goals in life -- I wanted to be a colonel in the Marine Corp and a member of Congress."

To understand Murtha, you have to understand that he knows firsthand that the Marine Corps is run not by the generals with their drivers and the stars on their shoulders, but by the sergeants. He refuses to settle for PowerPoint briefings from the military and civilian brass. He talks personally and directly to the enlisted personnel and the junior officers whose lives and limbs are on the line. His barely controlled rage over the shortage of bullet-stopping Kevlar vests for the U.S. military in Iraq brought prompt action from the Pentagon.

George W. Bush may want to run for re-election as "the war president," but Washington, D.C., in 2004 is anything but "a war capital." Contrary to the highest American traditions, this war demands from the nation's leadership no equality of sacrifice. The message to those most advantaged and most privileged from this president is clear: "In this war, you will pay no price, you will bear no burden."

Almost alone among Washington officials, Jack Murtha regularly visits Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospital, to comfort and encourage the wounded and crippled veterans and their families. He can tell you, because he knows and he goes to their funerals, that already six residents of his working class Pennsylvania district have been killed in Iraq.

As the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Murtha is openly furious at the Bush administration's dishonesty in failing to ask Congress to appropriate even the first dime of the millions that must be spent for 30,000 more troops, for the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan -- a budget Murtha brands $60 billion to $70 billion short of what the administration knows it will have to spend this year.

Prospects for the emergence of a stable, peaceful, self-governing Iraq? According to Murtha, "No better than 50-50."

You will not see Jack Murtha on the cable news talk show circuit. On Capitol Hill, he is rightly known as a workhorse, not a show horse. When Jack Murtha speaks, those who care about the men and women of the U.S. military and their mission have learned to pay attention.

WASHINGTON - North Korea agreed in the latest nuclear weapons talks to consider a U.S. demand that it dismantle its programs based both on plutonium and uranium, the chief U.S. negotiator told lawmakers.

"The North Koreans came to the table denying a uranium enrichment program," Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

But, in a reversal, he said, "It was clear by the conclusion of the talks that this is now very much on the table."

Kelly cited the developments in Beijing as evidence of "a very different, promising atmosphere" in the latest round of negotiations.

As Kelly spoke, Secretary of State Colin Powell avoided specifics but offered an upbeat assessment of the talks and said cooperation at the negotiating table with South Korea and other allies was unprecedented.

In a speech to an Asian studies group, Powell said North Korea can expect good relations with its neighbors in the North Pacific once it ends its program and embraces a policy of political and economic openness now sweeping the area.

While the Bush administration has ruled out concessions to North Korea as a payoff to end its nuclear weapons program, Powell said without elaboration: "We want to help the people of North Korea, who are in such difficulty now."

Referring to the U.S. partners in the six-nation talks that recessed last week in Beijing, Powell said the United States, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia "have made it clear to North Korea that a better future awaits them, that none of these nations is intent on attacking them or destroying them."

There was a good deal of progress at the latest round, Powell said. "We haven't gotten where we need to be," he said, "but what I am especially pleased about is that we have institutionalized now the process with working groups and we're already getting ready for the next meeting."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the six-party talks "produced a noticeable step forward" toward a nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula. He said the four-day meeting "opened a pathway to full-fledged and continuing negotiations aimed at a comprehensive approach to durable peace in the region."

Only Monday in Seoul, however, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun spoke of creating a foreign policy more independent of the United States. "Step by step, we should strengthen our independence and build our strength as an independent nation," he said in a nationally televised speech.

On Tuesday, the new South Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, met with President Bush and Powell at the White House. U.S. officials provided no account of the meeting.

The main theme of Powell's speech to the Asia Studies Center of the Heritage Foundation, a private research group, was that democracy was on the rise in Asia.

Just 40 years ago, he said, only one genuine democracy existed in East Asia, Japan, and two incomplete democracies, the Philippines and Malaysia.

In the rest of Asia, he said, only India had a solid democratic tradition.

The common conclusion, accepted even by some Asians, was that Asian societies had no interest in democratic government, Powell said.

Then came democratic successes in South Korea and Thailand and later Mongolia and Indonesia, Powell said. Taiwan followed, and then East Timor, and last year half a million people marched through Hong Kong in peaceful opposition to legislation that would have curbed civil liberties, he said.

Powell, in a pointed message to China, said Hong Kong must remain open and tolerant, even though the former British colony is under Chinese law.

He said in another message that the United States strongly opposes any use by China of force or threats across the Taiwan Strait, meaning against Taiwan.

The secretary said, however, that the United States does not support independence for Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - President Bush, armed with an aggressive new campaign speech and locals hand-picked to trumpet his economic policies, argued Thursday that America should keep him as president.

Outside his two carefully orchestrated and supporter-stocked appearances in this friendly Southern state, however, some voters had doubts.

Bruce Crater, an employee of the thriving plastic pipe factory that Bush visited to tout his tax cuts and other economic proposals, gave the president a "B-minus" grade and said he hasn't decided whether to vote for him again this year.

"We're seeing some turnaround," said Crater, a fabricator at ISCO Industries. "It's just going to take a long time to come back."

Tennessee Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., blasted Bush for proposing the same economic solutions he did nearly four years ago when the country was experiencing a budget surplus instead of today's soaring deficits.

"The country needs something different from an economic standpoint," Ford said in a conference call arranged by the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

And from ISCO Industries, Bush went to a luncheon that raised $1.2 million for his re-election campaign — only to be greeted by about 100 protesters waving signs lettered with a single word: "Jobs."

Bush took on his detractors. Speaking before 1,000 GOP contributors who paid $2,000 each to hear him defend his record, the president said voters will have a "very clear choice" this November between his approach to governing and the Democrats'.

Democratic leadership, he said, would bring higher taxes and oppose "every idea that gives Americans more authority and more choices and more control over our own lives." Bush added that a Democratic leader would create a nation "uncertain in the face of danger," and be less than aggressive in battling global terrorism.

"Our opponents have not offered much in the way of strategies to win the war or policies to expand the economy," Bush said. "So far, all we hear is a lot of old bitterness and partisan anger."

Bush said his continued leadership offered a "positive vision for the years ahead."

"The man who sits in the Oval Office will set the course of the war on terror and the direction of our economy," he said. "The security and prosperity of America are at stake."

The event at ISCO Industries was designed to showcase the positive impact of Bush's tax cuts. The five people chosen to share the stage with him offered tales of good times — all of which, they said, was a result from the cuts.

Rich Gimmel, president of Atlas Machine and Supply, told Bush his Louisville company has "really accelerated" its investment in equipment. Jeannie Unruh, CEO of Mac Construction and Excavating in nearby New Albany, Ind., said her firm was able to plow its $100,000 in tax savings into covering its employees' health insurance costs. ISCO employee Rob Hansen said the $1,200 child tax credit check he and his wife received last August went toward school supplies, medical bills, and eyeglasses for his oldest daughter.

And ISCO President Jimmy Kirchdorfer said he planned to continue adding workers — an estimated 30 next year.

"Thirty jobs here, 30 jobs there — all around the country, small businesses are expanding because there's a sense of optimism about the future of this country," Bush interjected. "Look at what we've overcome."

Job creation has been a sensitive issue for Bush. The unemployment rate has been falling and payrolls growing modestly in recent months. More than 8 million Americans were out of work last month.

Bush repeated his call for Congress to make the tax cuts permanent as a way to stimulate more economic activity.

The president was due to travel from Kentucky to Charlotte, N.C., for a similar round of appearances there, including a round-table discussion on his job training proposals with local businessmen at a community college and another fund-raiser. But snowy weather scotched those plans, which aides said would be rescheduled, and the president headed straight back to Washington instead.

WASHINGTON - After trying to quell stories about his Vietnam-era military record, President Bush is seeking to move beyond it by meeting with National Guard members in Louisiana.


Bush was spending Tuesday at Fort Polk, La., giving a speech to thank troops there for their service and sacrifice, White House aides said. Two soldiers killed by a roadside bomb while on mounted patrol in Iraq (news - web sites) last week were assigned to Fort Polk.

In the address, Bush also was reminding troops about the stakes in the war on terrorism and in Iraq.

Fort Polk is home to a regiment due to return soon from a year of service in Iraq. The 4,000-strong 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, in Iraq since last March, is to return sometime in March or April. It is to be replaced by a brigade from the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, as part of a larger troop rotation announced earlier by the Pentagon.

After the speech, Bush was lunching with National Guard members at the base. Thousands of Guard troops have trained at Fort Polk in recent months.

The president's visit is bound to serve as a reminder of a story that consumed the White House last week: Bush's record of service in the Texas Air National Guard in the early 1970s.

At issue is whether he showed up for service in Alabama after receiving permission to serve there temporarily in 1972-1973. Bush says he recalls serving there, but there is scant documentation proving it.

Late Friday, the White House released hundreds of pages of documents it said comprised Bush's entire military record, but the records offered no definitive answers.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry has kept silent on the flap in recent days, but he used Bush's trip to Louisiana to criticize the president's treatment of the military.

"With Kerry, veterans will have a veteran in the White House who fights to make sure they get the benefits they deserve," Kerry said.

Kerry said Bush's policies had threatened to undermine troops' pay, health care and battlefield protection.

"John Kerry will keep America's promise to those who served their country bravely," the Democratic presidential front-runner said.

The base Bush was visiting houses the Army's Joint Readiness Training Center for training exercises with the Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.

Fort Polk is also home to a variety of units — the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment affiliated with the XVIII Airborne Corps, and the Warrior Brigade, which contains several units with early deploying wartime missions. Medical, dental and military police commands are also assigned to the post.

The Fort Polk has played a role in the war on terrorism by providing training for the Army's light infantry and special operations forces and by deploying troops to Operations Enduring Freedom and Noble Eagle. Fort Polk soldiers also participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom.