"I was trying to think about some way the international community could come back together in the fight against terror.

"Europe should take the lead, the Iraq nation-building process should be internationalised. NATO should offer to go in. That will give United States a continued big position there," Clinton told the centre-left political gathering.

The former leader appealed to the United States and nations involved in restoring peace to Afghanistan to double or triple their forces there to support President Hamid Karzai and prevent a return of the radical Islamic Taliban regime ousted by US forces in 2001.

"The poor Mister Karzai is the president in Kabul with al-Qaeda and the Taliban coming back," he said.

But Clinton warned that the greatest threat came from North Korea, due to its development of nuclear weapons.

"(North Korea) was a far bigger threat than Iraq ever was. (...) They're not going to use them (nuclear weapons), they are going to sell them (...) to eat and stay warm and to be important," Clinton predicted.

"I think this is a very major deal, much bigger than is being presented in the press, and it requires urgent action."

Clinton called on the United States to work together with China, Russia, Japan and South Korea to find a solution to the escalating problem.

"But what we really need is for the United Nations (...) to support this and to be able to help fund it," Clinton added.

"It's not a lot of money by the standards of what we're spending every month in Iraq -- it's peanuts -- and it could save the world one hell of a lot of trouble and a lot of lives."

Clinton, a Democrat, criticised the right-wing Republican administration that took over the White House after his mandate ended in 2001.

"We are not dealing with an old right in the United States, we are dealing with a new right, with radical changes. (...) Their first value is power and control."

"We live in an independent world where it is impossible, even for the United States, to kill or occupy all our adversaries or potential adversaries," the former president said.

Clinton was speaking at the "progressive governance" conference of some 400 think-tank analysts and centre-left leaders from 14 nations.

The conference aimed to give a boost to the "third way" that informed the politics of the centre-left in the 1990s.

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