Biden says U.S. will listen to allies

MUNICH, Germany, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Vice President Joe Biden says the Obama administration will change the direction and tone of American foreign policy by listening to its allies.

In a speech Saturday at the 45th annual Munich Security Conference, Biden promised a sharp contrast with the Bush White House, saying he and President Barack Obama "will engage. We will listen. We will consult. America needs the world, just as I believe the world needs America."

Biden said the challenges facing the United States and its allies are "fraught with some considerable concern and peril" and that "our physical security and our economic security are indivisible."

"We are all confronting a serious threat to our economic security that could further spread instability and erode the progress we've made in improving the lives of all our citizens," he said.

Biden assured his audience the United States "will not torture" and will close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. However, he said Washington will ask its allies to take in detainees from the military prison.

"Our security is shared," he said. "And so, too, I respectfully suggest, is our responsibility to defend it."

The vice president called for a greater commitment by NATO members in Afghanistan.

He said the Obama administration is reviewing U.S. policy on Iran and will be "willing to talk," but he said Tehran would have to abandon its "illicit nuclear program and … support for terrorism."

Biden said it was "time to press the re-set button" on American-Russian relations. He was planning to meet with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov at the conference, the BBC reported.

The audience included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. Central Command chief whose territory includes Pakistan, and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.