White House calls on Kerry to reveal names of leaders

WASHINGTON - The White House has called on Democrat John Kerry to name the foreign leaders who he says want him to defeat US President George W Bush in the November election.

If Kerry refuses, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said, then he is probably "making it up."

The Republican White House was trying to turn to capitalise on Kerry's recent comment that he had spoken to some foreign leaders who wanted him to win in November and change the course of US foreign policy.

Kerry refused on Sunday to name names. "No leader would obviously share a conversation if I started listing them," Kerry told reporters.

"If Senator Kerry is going to say he has support from foreign leaders, then he needs to be straightforward with the American people and say who it is that he has spoken with and who it is that supports him," McClellan told reporters on Monday.

If not, the spokesman added, "Then the only alternative is that he is making it up to attack the president of the United States."

Secretary of State Colin Powell told Fox News Sunday that if Kerry cannot list the names, "then perhaps he should find something else to talk about."

Bush and Kerry, the presumptive Democratic nominee, are engaged in an increasingly bitter exchange in television ads and campaign speeches. Kerry on Saturday proposed a series of monthly debates that the Bush camp quickly dismissed.

- REUTERS