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Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards withdrew from the presidential race on January 30, 2008 in New Orleans. He is shown in file photo announcing his candidacy for president on December 28, 2006, in the back yard of a New Orleans house flooded after Hurricane Katrina. Student volunteers behind Edwards were helping the owner clean up the home. (UPI Photo/A.J. Sisco/Files)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Wednesday praised John Edwards, as Edwards ended his campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

Edwards, Wednesday dropped out of the race to become the Democratic standard-bearer, saying it was time for him to step aside. The former senator from North Carolina consistently finished well behind Obama and Clinton in this year's primaries and caucuses.

Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, said Edwards "made the nation focus once again on who matters" by speaking out on eliminating poverty, as well as lunch-box and middle-class issues.

Clinton, in her second term as a senator from New York, said Edwards stood for "people too often left behind" and lifted the campaign "with his deep concern for ... the American people."

Edwards said he called both Clinton and Obama, asking them to make ending poverty a theme for their campaigns and in their administration, if elected. Both agreed, he said.

Edwards said he had no immediate endorsement plans.