Kansas City, Mo. ? Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that if elected she’ll call on former presidents and other leaders from both political parties to help improve the image of the U.S. abroad.

The New York senator said it was wise of President Bush to ask former presidents to represent the country, especially when Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush helped in Indonesia in the wake of the 2004 tsunami that killed some 230,000 people in 12 nations.

“I strongly believe that it is important to utilize distinguished Americans of both parties,” Clinton said after a fundraiser at the Hilton President Hotel in Kansas City. “I would not stop at former presidents. I would look to other distinguished Americans from all walks of life.”

Clinton said the negative image many Indonesians had of the United States changed after they saw the former political leaders, the American military, nonprofit groups and churches helping out.

“It helped to improve our standing in much of the world where that tsunami hit,” she said. “I think we need to send a message out to the rest of the world that the United States wants to find ways to work together again and I intend to do that.”

Bill Clinton had said earlier in the day from Britain that his wife wants him to lead such efforts.

He said for the first time in his political experience, “ordinary Americans in the heartlands” were concerned about how the world sees the U.S. after years of unilateralism of Bush’s administration on issues such as Iraq, climate change, and nuclear nonproliferation.

Hillary Clinton was in Kansas City for a fundraiser attended by about 300 supporters. She also met with more than 50 ministers from several different denominations across Missouri.

She said she gained the support of the group, despite not necessarily agreeing on some social issues.

“Like any group of people we have some areas of disagreement,” she said. “But I think we try each of us to live by our faith and the values that derive from that faith.”

Clinton has spoken often of her Methodist upbringing and said her religion helped hold her marriage together.

But last month, a nonpartisan Pew Research Center poll found people view Clinton and Rudy Giuliani as the least religious of the major presidential candidates. Seven in 10 said they believe it is important for a president to have strong religious beliefs, the poll found.

Bishop Willie Ellis from the New Baptist Church in St. Louis said Friday’s discussions centered on many issues including health care, incarceration and jobs.

“She would project the kind of image we would want here in our community,” Ellis said.