U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama suggested on Wednesday that he would consider offering former Vice President Al Gore a cabinet-level post should he be elected president.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama speaks during an appearance at the 38th constitutional convention of the Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania April 2, 2008.

His Republican counterpart, John McCain, said that he has concluded a list of potential running mates with nearly 20 names, and would narrow it down in the next "weeks if not months."

"It's not an unusual thing," the 71-year-old Arizona Senator said. "You put the list together and then you just could do a cursory kind of a look that I guess you could do on Google."

McCain said that he would not rush the process to avoid repeating the mistakes made by several past nominees, but he hopes the name would be released before the party's convention in early September.

Asked by a female attendee to a campaign rally in Pennsylvania whether he would recruit Gore in his administration, Illinois Senator Obama said that he would tap the vice president who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential race to George W. Bush for his cabinet or even higher level office to address the global warming issue.

"Not only will I, but I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem," he said, adding he consulted with Gore on a regular basis.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore waves to journalists as he arrives at the side event of the U.N. Climate Change Conference 2007 in Nusa Dua, on Bali island, December 13, 2007.

Gore, who has refused to come back to the presidential race, committed to the climate change course that earned him a Nobel Prize in 2007. So far, he has not officially endorsed any Democratic presidential candidate.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2008)