JOSEPH BIDEN

NEW YORK: Delaware Democratic Senator Joseph Biden announced he will seek presidential nomination from his party for the 2008 elections and file paperwork to allow him to raise money.

Biden has been assessing for months whether he had enough political and financial support to make the bid. He seems assured and hence the next step and the setting up of an exploratory committee.

Announcing his intention at NBC's Meet the Press program, Biden said emphatically, "I am running for president.''

There are three others who have already announced their intention to seek nomination -- former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack and Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Besides these, the other potential candidates are Senators Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois.

Biden, 64, first elected to the Senate in 1972, is now chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has been a vehement critic of president Bush's Iraq policies.

Biden had run for the presidency in 1988 but it ended in a controversy over his speech, in which he had adapted portions from a U.K. politician, but did not acknowledge.

Republican candidates who have already formed exploratory committees are Senator John McCain of Arizona, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.