In N H, Edwards plays up differences with Clinton

NASHUA, N H, Feb 25 (Reuters) Presidential candidate John Edwards courted Democratic activists in New Hampshire, playing up differences over the Iraq war with rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the key primary state.

Drawing a contrast with Clinton, who faced criticism in New Hampshire this month for not repudiating her 2002 Senate vote authorizing the Iraq war, Edwards emphasized that he had repeatedly apologized for voting to authorize the war.

''I voted for this war. I should have not voted for this war. I was wrong to vote for it,'' the former North Carolina senator said in Nashua yesterday, the second-largest city in the state that helps to kick off the 2008 White House race.

''I have to take responsibility for that, and I do. Nobody else has that responsibility,'' he told a crowd of about 125 people in the home of a New Hampshire state senator.

A distant third in New Hampshire polls, Edwards needs to emerge from the large shadows cast by Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who drew big cheers and standing-room only crowds of more than 1,500 people on a December trip to the state.

''He needs to figure out how to be included in campaign coverage without looking desperate for coverage,'' said Dean Spiliotes, research director at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.

He said Edwards was courting Democratic anti-war activists who may oppose Clinton for not apologizing for her 2002 vote.

Despite pressure from anti-war Democrats, Clinton has refused to apologize for her Senate vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq or call it a mistake. The mistakes, she says, were committed by President George W Bush.

Clinton, a New York senator who leads the Democratic field in early national polls, tells campaign crowds she would not have cast the vote if she knew then what she knows now.

''It's really important for us to be honest with the country about not only the past, but also what's happening in Iraq now,'' Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee, said, echoing similar comments he made this week in Nevada.

''We're in a very bad place and there aren't good choices.'' Edwards urged Congress to fund only 100,000 troops in Iraq, which he said would ''force the president to bring 40,000 to 50,000 home immediately.'' He also touted his proposal to spend up to 120 billion dollar a year to fix a ''dysfunctional'' health-care system by requiring health insurance for all Americans.

Cina Barker, 69, of Nashua, said Edwards looked impressively straightforward. ''He was really forthright. He speaks with integrity,'' she said.

New Hampshire holds the nation's first presidential primary.

REUTERS SY PM0851