ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry said on Wednesday Republican Sen. John McCain topped his list for defense secretary as he criticized the Bush administration for failed policies in Iraq.

Kerry slammed President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the abuse of Iraqi prisoners, their failure to build an international coalition and other "miscalculations surrounding this war."

"This thing has been so extraordinarily mismanaged and ineptly prosecuted," the Massachusetts senator told the "Imus in the Morning" radio program one day after Army Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who investigated the mistreatment at the Abu Ghraib prison, told Congress the abuse reflected a failure of leadership in the U.S. armed forces.

The attack marked a shift for a candidate that has otherwise stayed on this week's chosen message: reducing soaring health care costs.

Renewing his call for Bush to take full responsibility for the prison scandal and Rumsfeld to resign despite his apology, Kerry singled out McCain of Arizona, a fellow Vietnam War veteran and frequent Bush critic, when pressed on who he would want running the Pentagon.

"I'm not the president today," Kerry said, but he added: "I have any number of people that I would make secretary of Defense, beginning with our good friend John McCain as an example."

Kerry listed other possible candidates "who could manage it (the top Defense job) very effectively," including Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan and Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the top ranking senators on the Armed Services Committee.

McCain's name has surfaced on the long lists of potential running mates for Kerry but he has denied any interest. In addition, Kerry used McCain's image in one of his campaign ads.

CALLED "POLITICAL GAMBIT"

McCain's office had no comment to Kerry's latest comments. But the Arizona Republican, in response to earlier talk of being Kerry's running mate, said he plans to remain in Congress as a Republican and wants Bush re-elected.

Sen. George Allen, a Virginia Republican, responded incredulously when told of Kerry's comments. "Kerry said that?" Allen said with a grin. "It's a political gambit."

McCain was defeated by Bush in the bitterly fought 2000 Republican Party primary. With a strong following among independent voters, McCain has always had a reputation for outspokenness, recently defending Kerry against Republicans questioning his commitment to national security.

Kerry blamed Bush and Rumsfeld for the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, saying they "dismissed" the Geneva Convention after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks "so that the status of prisoners, both legal and moral, becomes ambiguous at best, and I think as we hear from Gen. Taguba, worse that ambiguous, major failures in command."

He predicted more "public backbiting" which he warned would hurt the military.

Kerry said his goal was to bring other countries into Iraq to "get rid of this American occupation, (to) get the target off the American troops alone, (and to) get the war out of the pocket of the American taxpayer exclusively."

Pressed on his characterization of atrocities committed by U.S. troops in Vietnam, Kerry said many U.S. actions during the war ran counter to the Geneva Convention.