Washington ? John Kerry met with independent Ralph Nader Wednesday, but the Democrat didn’t ask the third-party candidate to quit the presidential race despite widespread Democratic fears that his candidacy could ensure President Bush’s re-election.

Kerry told The Associated Press shortly before the meeting that he believed he would “reduce any rationale” for Nader’s candidacy, but he would never ask another candidate to abandon an election bid.

“In the end, I hope I can make people aware that a vote for Ralph Nader is a vote for George Bush,” Kerry said.

The candidates did discuss whether Nader would siphon votes from Kerry, a growing concern among Democrats who remain convinced that Nader’s presence on the ballot four years ago, especially in Florida and New Hampshire, cost Democrat Al Gore the presidency.

“We talked about that, and I told him of my belief that I would take more votes away from Bush than from him,” Nader said.

“He basically said it all comes down to what happens just before the election.”

Nader said he and Kerry would meet again in the future. “We both agreed to keep the communication lines open and the common objective to defeat the Bush government,” Nader said.

As Nader and Kerry were meeting, other Democrats not connected to the presidential campaign were launching an Internet-based movement to woo Nader supporters from his long-shot bid.

Tricia Enright, president of the National Progress Fund that launched the site, said they planned to start airing television ads next week in which a Nader voter says he made a mistake that helped put President Bush in office.

A Kerry aide, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said Kerry led off the hourlong meeting by telling Nader that he intended to win the election and stressing their common goal of ousting Bush.

The aide said the two candidates spent the rest of the meeting talking about their common fights against corporate welfare and for consumer and abortion rights.

The aide said they did not discuss the Iraq war.