Outgoing New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, widely admired for his leadership after the September attacks on his city, said last night he had not yet decided on any future political plans.
Asked if he might seek the presidency in 2008, Giuliani said the election was much too far off and that seven or eight years before he ran for mayor he had no idea he would do so.
"You all think that it's planned much more than it is," Mr Giuliani, who will step down as mayor tomorrow after two terms, told City Hall reporters.
Public perceptions that Mr Giuliani handled well the crisis in his city when hijackers crashed two airliners into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people, have led to speculation that he might seek higher office.
He declined to say if he wanted to run as President George W. Bush's running mate in 2004 if Vice President Dick Cheney, who has had health problems, declined to run again.
Mr Giuliani, Time Magazine's Person of the Year, who bowed out of a US Senate race against Hillary Rodham Clinton to battle prostate cancer, said his health was now terrific. Since September 11, there have been few headlines about his ongoing divorce from wife Donna Hanover.
Plans now include writing a book, golf, and a vacation.
He said New Yorkers saw that he worked equally to aid all communities in this diverse city after the September attacks, which shook the city to its very soul.
"People saw from September 11 on that I worked equally hard for all the people of the city, and I worked harder for the people who needed it," he said. "I think most people understand that I relate to New Yorkers as New Yorkers (do)."
A Republican in a strongly Democratic city, Mr Giuliani has been widely credited for the city's plummeting crime rates, its sharply reduced welfare rolls, the vanishing of public nuisances such as squeegee men and, until the World Trade Center carnage, a healthy economy and vibrant tourism.