Powell challenges Kerry on world appeal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-03-15 11:43

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday challenged Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to name the foreign leaders whom the Massachusetts senator claims want him as the next U.S. president.

Kerry, the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee, said at a fund-raiser last week in Florida that he's heard from some world leaders who quietly back his candidacy and hope he defeats President Bush in November.

Powell expressed skepticism on "Fox News Sunday" when asked about Kerry's assertion.

"I don't know what foreign leaders Senator Kerry is talking about. It's an easy charge, an easy assertion to make. But if he feels it is that important an assertion to make, he ought to list some names," Powell said. "If he can't list names, then perhaps he should find something else to talk about."

Pressed on the issue on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, Kerry refused to name any leaders who back his campaign, saying he won't violate the confidence of those who spoke to him privately.

"No leader would obviously share a conversation if I started listing them," said Kerry. "The point is that all across the world, America is meeting with a new level of hostility."

"There are relationships that have been broken," Kerry said at a town hall meeting. "I have heard from foreign leaders elsewhere in the world who don't appreciate the Bush administration and would love to see a change in the leadership of the United States."

He also wouldn't say at what level he had spoken with officials. "I'm not going to play that game," said Kerry, who said private conversations should stay that way.

"I don't think Colin Powell or the president would start listing the names of those who said something critical," said Kerry. "I think the people of the United States understand that we have lost some of the good will that we had extended to us immediately after Sept. 11."

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, meanwhile, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the president has told Powell and him not to get involved in the re-election campaign.

"He thinks that it's best if his secretary of state and his secretary of state tend to their responsibilities and not allow their departments to become enmeshed in the campaign," Rumsfeld said.

"It's obviously difficult if those issues become prominent and we have to discuss those issues, but we will be doing it in a manner that is not campaign-style at all," Rumsfeld said.