Aug. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, responding to criticism from President George W. Bush that Kerry has changed position on Iraq, told supporters he's been ``consistent'' and suggested Bush lacks ``maturity.''

``The Bush folks are trying to say that we've changed positions, this and that,'' Kerry told a rally at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas yesterday. ``I have been consistent all along, ladies and gentlemen. I thought the United States needed to stand up to Saddam Hussein. I voted to stand up to Saddam Hussein.''

Bush and Kerry have parried over the president's decision to go to war against Iraq and the 2002 vote in Congress, supported by Kerry, to authorize military force against Hussein, the deposed dictator. Bush is on a five-day campaign trip through eight states, and Kerry is on a 15-day trip through 18 states.

``I know what we need to do now to get the troops home,'' Kerry said. ``I know what we need to do to deal with Iraq. We need to do what we should have done in the beginning. We need the statesmanship. We need the patience. We need the maturity. We need the leadership.''

`New Nuance'

At a political rally of Republicans in Pensacola, Florida, yesterday, Bush, 58, said Kerry had introduced a ``new nuance'' in explaining his vote for the war even though Kerry now criticizes Bush's handling of Iraq.

Kerry, 60, sounding a new theme in the speeches he has been giving to Democratic rallies, said he wants to bring the troops home through diplomacy. About 140,000 U.S. troops are serving in Iraq. As of yesterday, 692 members of the military had died in action since the invasion March 20, 2003, according to the Department of Defense Web site. Kerry said the U.S. needs help from allies in Iraq, to ``get the target off our troops, get the hand out of the pocket of the American taxpayer and get our troops home.''

Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 after telling Americans that intelligence showed Hussein was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and posed a threat to U.S. security.

``After months of questioning my motives and even my credibility, Senator Kerry now agrees with me that even though we have not found the stockpile of weapons we all believed were there, knowing everything we know today, he would have voted to go into Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power,'' Bush said. ``I want to thank Senator Kerry for clearing that up -- although there are still 84 days left in the campaign.''

Inadequate Support

Kerry has said Bush rushed into the conflict and didn't win adequate international support or plan for keeping Iraq secure after Hussein was driven from power.

``I thought we ought to do it right,'' Kerry said in Las Vegas. ``We ought to reach out to other countries. We ought to build an international coalition. We ought to exhaust the remedies that were available to us.''

Bush said the U.S. and its coalition partners are committed to supporting Iraq's interim government until democracy takes hold.

Two years after voting for the war in Congress, ``and almost 220 days after switching positions to declare himself the anti-war candidate, my opponent has found a new nuance,'' Bush said of Kerry's position.

Kerry said yesterday in an appearance at the Grand Canyon in Arizona that he wants to reduce U.S. troops in Iraq over time by building a coalition of forces from other nations and training Iraqi security forces as Iraq develops a stable civilian government.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Roberts in Las Vegas, Nevada at wroberts@bloomberg.net Heidi Przybyla in Washington at hprzybyla@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 11, 2004 06:55 EDT