Former Republican Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has announced he is making a 2012 run for the White House, though his campaign later downplayed the move.
"I'm running for president," Pawlenty told CNN in an interview.
"I'm not putting my hat in the ring rhetorically or ultimately for vice president. I'm focused on running for president."
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But despite the straight-forward proclamation, his campaign quickly sought to debunk suggestions Pawlenty was making it official.
"Of course he didn't announce tonight. CNN's quote is ridiculous," spokesman Alex Conant told AFP, adding that Pawlenty's had actually told the television network that he currently had an exploratory committee and will make an official announcement later.
"Governor (Pawlenty) has said this many times before; he is not running to be anybody's vice president."
Conant said Pawlenty will make a formal announcement about his potential presidential bid "later this spring".
A formal announcement would trigger a set of government reporting requirements for the campaign.
In March, Pawlenty became the first Republican to announce an exploratory committee, generally a must-do step that allows potential candidates to gauge the potential for raising the vast sums of money required.
Largely unknown outside his home state, the 50-year-old Pawlenty lives in Minnesota with his wife Mary and two teenage daughters.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney entered the race on Monday by announcing he was launching an exploratory committee in an economy-focused message.
He charged that the policies of President Barack Obama, a Democrat, "have failed" to revive the battered US economy.
Romney ran in 2008, but fell short amid doubts from core conservatives that he truly shared their values, and questions fueled by his moderate governing style in traditionally liberal Massachusetts.
Other Republicans have shown interest in a White House bid, including firebrand Representative Michele Bachmann, a leader in the archconservative "Tea Party" movement that helped power the party to big gains in the November 2010 elections.
Possible contenders also include former House speaker Newt Gingrich, former Utah governor Jon Huntsman -- the current US ambassador to China whose resignation will become effective April 30 -- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and businessman Donald Trump.
Republican officials worry that the crowded field of possible White House hopefuls could end up helping Obama, who is certain to get his party's 2012 nod but could be vulnerable as the US economy sputters its way out of its worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
