Straying from the Geneva Conventions to interrogate and try foreign detainees would erode America's image and could endanger U.S. operatives in the future, Sen. John McCain said yesterday.

Speaking to a gathering in Concord, McCain held firm in his opposition to the president over how to treat suspected terrorists. The Bush administration wants leeway from international standards to interrogate detainees and wants to use military tribunals to try the terror suspects.

The White House wants Congress to pass legislation endorsing those practices, but a group of Republicans - led by McCain -has joined Democrats in objecting. McCain, who suffered torture as a prisoner for more than five years during the Vietnam War, said the United States must not abandon the Geneva Conventions, the rules for treating enemy combatants that have been ratified by more than 190 countries since 1949.

"One of the things in North Vietnam that kept us strong was that we knew that we were not like our enemies, and that we came from a better nation and better values and better standards, and we stood for freedom," McCain said.

McCain, a likely 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said shelving the Geneva Conventions for the war on terror would be a grave mistake. He said the country should avoid coercive interrogation tactics and try suspected terrorists in accordance with certain protections, such as allowing them access to evidence.

McCain said his position is not about being soft on terrorists. He called members of al-Qaida and other Islamic terror groups "the most evil people in the world."

But "this issue is not about them," McCain said. "This issue is about us."

McCain said if the United States abandoned part of the Geneva Conventions, other countries could do the same, putting American agents abroad at risk of torture.

McCain won the 2000 Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire but lost the eventual nomination to Bush, who was then governor of Texas. The two have clashed at times - over aspects of the war on terror and the handling of Iraq, especially - though McCain campaigned for the president in 2004. Yesterday, McCain was careful to speak about Bush in positive terms.

McCain avoided mentioning Bush's name in speaking about his debate with the White House over the prisoner issue. "We have an honest disagreement with some members of the administration,"said McCain, who called the disagreement an "imbroglio" but remained optimistic about the outcome. "I believe we can work this out."

When McCain spoke about Bush specifically, it was to support him in glowing terms. "I believe in him, and I think he's a good and decent man," McCain said. "I think he's a man of principle, and I will continue to support him as much as humanly possible."

That didn't stop McCain from finding fault with members of Bush's cabinet. He reaffirmed his position that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is unfit for the job. "I can't tell you I have confidence in his stewardship," McCain said.

Nonetheless, McCain said, "the president is the one that matters, and the president has confidence in Donald Rumsfeld."

Yesterday, McCain appeared in Loudon for the start of the Sylvania 300 race, then made his way from the track to the Concord home of Steve and Susan Duprey. Steve Duprey, former chairman of the state Republican Party, serves as a top national adviser to McCain's Straight Talk America political action committee. Susan Duprey acts as treasurer of Straight Talk America-New Hampshire.

McCain's visit was supposed to be a small, living-room affair - a chance, Steve Duprey said, for the senator to reconnect with a dozen of his 2000 supporters and to meet a dozen other influential Republicans, should he decide to run for president again. But the crowd grew through word of mouth, and the event instead resembled a campaign stop.

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