Joseph Biden enters 2008 US presidential race

WASHINGTON: Calling it the "beginning of a marathon", Chairman of the powerful US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden has thrown his hat in the presidential ring, joining the long list of his Democratic colleagues -- at least eight by one count -- vying for party nomination for the 2008 race for the White House.

"You've got to file the formal papers to meet the legal requirements to be able to raise money, and that's what I've done today. Everybody else calls it 'exploratory'. I'm not exploring. I'm in. And this is the beginning of a marathon," Biden said.

In an appearance on ABC News, Biden used the occasion to attack the Bush administration's policies in both Iran and Iraq, stressing the imperative of Washington having to sit down and talk with Teheran, especially in the context of reports that Iran may have been behind the recent attack against American forces in Karbala.

"The one thing to do about Iran is to sit down and talk with them. You know, we did that when we were involved in Afghanistan. Everyone forgets, Iran sat at the table with regard to Afghanistan, along with five other powers."

He also said a political settlement between the Sunnis and the Shias is what the US should aim for in Iraq.

"...Our policy in Iraq is flawed. Instead of escalating the war in Iraq, which will do us no good, we should be insisting on a political settlement between the Sunnis and the Shias. That's the only way this is going to end.

"But as long as that civil war is going on, all the parties in the region are going to be involved in what they believe protecting their interests," Biden said.

"Right now Iran has it just nice. We're spending our blood and treasure. They're making it worse for us. And the only thing that's worse for them is if we were not there and it devolves into a full-blown chaotic situation. And then their interests are very much at stake because they'll have great population flows in their direction, destabilising them.

"We ought to be bringing all the parties together at one table like we did in Dayton to settle the Bosnia accords, because there is no military solution to Iraq," the Democrat from Delaware said.

Biden also disagreed with the ideas on Iraq of the Democratic front-runner Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton who had recently said that there needs to be a cap on American forces along with a message to Iraqi leaders that there will be a cutoff in funds if certain benchmarks were not met.

"I think it would be a disaster, if that is her plan to, one, cap the American forces ... and, two, cut off funding for the local Iraqi forces. They're the people we're supposed to be training so that we can rely on them to aid us in the efforts that we undertake," Biden said.

Biden, 64, joins the race for the Democratic nomination dominated in the early going by Senators Hillary, Barack Obama, and former vice presidential nominee John Edwards.

His made a previous bid for the presidency in 1988.