Former NATO commander to join US presidential race

Former NATO commander Wesley Clark is on Wednesday expected to join the race to unseat George W Bush in the 2004 US presidential election.

Clark is an outspoken critic of the US led war in Iraq.

"We're going to march forth across the United States, and we're going to have a vision that helps transform this country to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Clark told CNN.

That he will be making a late entry into the race with most candidates having been in the running for months now has not deterred Clark, who is expected to launch his candidacy in Little Rock, Arkansas.

His campaign team includes veterans of the campaigns of former president Bill Clinton, who was once governor of Arkansas, and former vice-president Al Gore.

Clark (58) is a West Point graduate, Rhodes Scholar and former CNN military analyst who led US and allied forces in Kosovo. He retired from the US army in 2000 after a 34-year career that included combat in Vietnam and leading the military negotiations in the peace talks that ended the war in Bosnia in 1995.

Clark became NATO's supreme commander in 1997, but reportedly clashed with Pentagon officials during the Kosovo campaign and was relieved of command after the war.