Grand Canyon N.P., Ariz. ? Responding to President Bush’s challenge to clarify his position, Sen. John Kerry said Monday that he still would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq even if he had known then that U.S. and allied forces would not find weapons of mass destruction.

At the same time, the Democratic presidential nominee said that his goal as president would be to reduce U. S. troops in Iraq during his first six months in office through a combination of diplomacy and foreign assistance.

“I believe if you do the statesmanship properly, I believe if you do the kind of alliance building that is available to us, that it is appropriate to have a goal of reducing our troops” by August 2005, Kerry told reporters during a press briefing.

Since last month’s Democratic National Convention, Kerry has been under mounting pressure to provide a clearer explanation of his views on the war, including why he voted for the congressional resolution authorizing the invasion yet opposing funding for the war. Last Friday, Bush challenged Kerry to answer yes or no to the question of whether he would support the war “knowing what we know now” about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction that U.S. and British officials were certain were there.

In response, Kerry said: “Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have.

In the past, Kerry has said he would want to talk to commanders in the field before determining troop size and never ruled out increasing U.S. forces if needed. Later, he set a goal of reducing troops by the end of his first term.

After the news conference, Jamie Rubin, national security adviser to the Democratic nominee, said he wanted to “clarify” Kerry’s comments as a best-case target for troop reduction contingent upon conditions such as the ground changing.