NEW YORK, March 1 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Thursday said he used the wrong word when he told CBS personality David Letterman the Iraq war has "wasted" American lives.

McCain announced Wednesday on "Late Show with David Letterman" that he will be a candidate for president in 2008, and plans to announce his candidacy formally next month.

During the telecast McCain said U.S. lives had been "wasted" in the war.

"Americans are very frustrated (about Iraq), and they have every right to be," McCain said. "We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives."

Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee, demanded an apology, ABC News reported.

"We think Sen. McCain should apologize immediately," said Finney, "and he certainly should explain how it is that he now believes American lives are being wasted when he so stubbornly supports the president's plan to escalate the war in Iraq -- which would put even more lives in harm's way."

McCain issued a statement that did not include an apology, but acknowledged he "should have used the word, sacrificed, as I have in the past."

McCain said the larger point is that American leaders owe the troops "our best judgment and honest appraisal of the progress of the war."

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., apologized in February for telling an audience in Iowa that the lives of U.S. troops killed in Iraq had been "wasted."