"This administration has been almost myopic in its view on Iraq itself, to the exclusion of those things that are necessary to, in fact, make the world safer," the senator from Massachusetts told The New York Times.

"This administration is high on rhetoric and high on ideology and low on actual strategic thinking and truth," Kerry said.

"And the fact is that they have broken alliances across the planet that have served us well for years, they've left our reputation in tatters," he said. "There's no one who deals with the global community who doesn't understand the degree to which we've isolated ourselves, and I think we're less safe because of that."

Kerry said North Korea, Iran and nuclear material in the former Soviet Union posed the most serious threat of putting unconventional weapons into the hands of terror groups.

The Bush administration had put these problems on the back burner, he said, adding that North Korea "was a far more compelling threat in many ways, and it belonged at the top of the agenda."

Kerry told the Times he would have "dealt with them simultaneously" along with Iraq.

"Three and a half years ago, four years ago, we had television cameras and inspectors in Pyongyang," Kerry said. "Today we do not. Three and a half years ago we knew where the fuel rods were. Today we do not.

"We have to be more artful in seeing what they (the North Koreans) see, not just thinking about it from our point of view," he continued.