Former U.S. senator John Edwards, the Democratic Party's vice presidential candidate in 2004, announced his candidacy on Thursday for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.

"I'm here in New Orleans ... to announce that I'm a candidate for the presidency of the United States in the election in 2008," he said at a press conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, which was hard hit by a devastating hurricane last year and is still struggling to recover from the disaster.

Edwards said that in his own view, "the biggest responsibility of the next president of the United States is to re-establish America's leadership role in the world, starting with Iraq."

He said the United States should make it clear that it intended to leave Iraq and turn over the responsibility to the Iraqis. To make that point clear, the United States should withdraw 40,000 to50,000 troops from Iraq immediately, and continue to pull out other troops over a period of time, he said.

Edwards said Iraq needed a "political solution," and a political solution "is the only viable way there's going to be any success in Iraq over the long term."

Born in June 1953, Edwards was a trial lawyer before entering politics. He served as a U.S. senator from North Carolina between 1999 and 2005, and in 2003, launched his first bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Edwards was not the first Democrat to have announced their ambitions for the White House.

On Tuesday, Democratic Senator Joseph Biden from Delaware said that he intended to run for the party's presidential nomination in 2008, short of launching a formal campaign.

Before Biden, Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack has announced his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich, who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2004, has also launched his campaign for the White House.

Other potential Democratic candidates included New York Senator Hillary Clinton, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, and former Vice President Al Gore and Senator John Kerry, the party's presidential nominees for 2000 and 2004 respectively.

On the Republican side, Representative Duncan Hunter of California has announced his intention to consider running for the party's presidential nomination in 2008. Outgoing Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Arizona Senator John McCain, and former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani all have taken steps towards a possible campaign to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Editor: Yan