When Joe Biden flew into Manchester on Wednesday night, as he was waiting to pick up his baggage, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called him on his cell phone. He wanted to discuss the status of the Middle East summit in Annapolis, Ma.

"Folks, I know these guys," said Biden, a Democratic senator and presidential candidate. "And let me tell you, they're waiting for an American leader. They are waiting for America to lead again."

Biden offered the story to show how his relationships and experience abroad would help him restore America's respect in the world. The candidate spoke yesterday to about 30 seniors at the Havenwood-Heritage Heights retirement community in Concord.

Had he been president after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Biden would have called a meeting of the world's major powers "to jointly plan the demise of the rise of radical fundamentalism." And he would have introduced a bill "to free us from the iron grip of the oligarchs of oil, the very people funding these radicals."

He said that he would have called for Americans to make sacrifices for energy efficiency.

"All of the world empathized and sympathized with us," he told the audience. "And who among the American public would have said, 'No, no, don't ask me to sacrifice'?"

Biden criticized Bush for instead furthering "small-bore," if practical, ideas, to shore up the airline industry and larger economy by asking Americans to fly and shop.

The next president will have to do more, Biden said.

He underlined the severity of the Iraq war, saying that it has already lasted longer than World War II and killed more than 3,800 American soldiers. He said that there were more amputees per capita than any other war since the Civil War and that 14,000 soldiers would be coming back in need of a lifetime of medical care.

"They would have been dead had they been in the Vietnam War or the Korean War, but because of the incredible triage capability," Biden said, "they are living. That's the good news."

He said other Democratic candidates were not being straight with the American electorate.

"None of the other candidates, except for John (Edwards) occasionally, like talking about Iraq," he said. "On Day One, the next president better know what they are going to do in order to end it, without leaving a regional war behind, and chaos, with Iran moving into Iraq, Turkey moving into Kurdistan, the Saudis supporting the Shia extremists, et cetera."

He said his plan to separate Iraq into three sectarian regions with strong local autonomy and a weaker federal government, and then pull out most American troops by next summer, has won the support of 75 senators, foreign policy experts as different in ideologies as Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright, and nearly all Iraqi political leaders.

He said that Bush's idea of supporting a strong central government in Iraq would never work and that no other candidates had a comprehensive plan to end the war.

The Bush administration, he said, has rushed to promote elections in Iraq, Gaza and elsewhere. He said its members think "like ideologues think" and are "woefully unsophisticated about diplomacy."

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