SYDNEY: Former US vice-president Al Gore said on Sunday that he would not rule out running again for presidency.
"I haven't completely ruled out running for president again in the future but I don't expect to," said Democrat Gore, who lost narrowly to Republican George W Bush in the 2000 presidential elections.
Gore, 58, who had been vice-president under Bill Clinton for two terms and was widely tipped to win the top job, is in Australia to promote his documentary on global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth".
The politician turned environmental campaigner told a news conference there was no doubt he could make more of an impact on environmental issues as president, but he was doing what he could.
"I am under no illusions that there is any position with as much influence as that of president of the US," he said.
Gore said he believed his documentary work could make a difference in the way people approached environmental issues.
"I think by delivering this message in my slide shows, in the movie and my book, it is an effective way to deliver a message that is important to people," he said.
Gore criticises Australia and the US in the documentary as the only countries not to sign the Kyoto protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
PM John Howard said today he would not meet Gore during his visit but "might" watch the documentary at some stage.
Howard said he did not take policy advice from films, even documentaries based on fact.
"Our policies are based on fact, too, and the fact is that if we signed the Kyoto protocol we would destroy a lot of Australian industry and we would send Australian jobs to countries like China and Indonesia and India," he said.
