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WASHINGTON — In separate appearances, Gov. Bill Richardson told an Arab-American group that, as president, he would close the Guantanamo Bay prison for terrorists and a Democratic Jewish group that he would consider increasing aid to Israel.

But to both - the National Jewish Democratic Council and the Arab-American Institute Foundation - he promised that in his first week in the White House he would name a Middle East peace envoy to try to get the peace process between Israel and Palestine moving again.

In Washington on Wednesday, he also told reporters he would consider appointing former Secretary of State James Baker to a post that President Bush has left vacant.

"I would say honestly and candidly that Israel is less secure than it was six years ago," Richardson told the Jewish group.

At the Arab-American dinner, he said, "You have to be pushing very strongly for a two-state solution (in Israel). The cornerstone of American foreign policy is diplomacy and dialogue."

Richardson also told both groups that he would remove U.S. troops from Iraq and would talk to Syria and Iran about Iraq's security, although he told the Jewish group that he would not include Iran if it built nuclear weapons. He also told the council he would not talk to Hamas, the Palestinian group that still calls for Israel's destruction, but would support Palestinian moderates.

At the Arab-American Institute Foundation dinner, Richardson said the prisons at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib had made Americans "very, very ashamed."

Richardson was the last of the Democratic presidential candidates to address the National Jewish Democratic Council this week and the only one to address the Arab-American dinner.

The council is a liaison between the Democratic Party and Jewish groups. It does not endorse in Democratic primaries, but it does provide a forum for Democratic candidates to speak to Jewish voters.

Stephen L. Rabin, deputy executive director of the group, said the council focuses not only on concerns about Israel, but traditional Jewish concerns about social justice, church versus state, energy independence and international humanitarian issues like Darfur.

Rabin said Richardson's foreign policy experience should impress Jewish voters, who voted 87 percent of the time for Democrats in 2006, according to exit polls.

But Richardson knew that when he followed Sen. Hillary Clinton to the podium before about 100 council members that he was, at best, their second choice behind the New York Democrat.

He argued that he was the most experienced and best candidate to deal with the Middle East and the most electable, even if he's not a "rock star."

"We need a candidate who can win around the country, not just in Los Angeles and New York City," Richardson told the group.

Clinton was introduced by Daphne Ziman, the head of a television production company who has helped Richardson in the past but is now Clinton's top Los Angeles fund-raiser.

Ziman, who was born in Israel, said she had just spoken with Leah Rabin, widow of the late Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, and that Leah Rabin's message to Clinton was, "We need you."

Clinton's first words to the group reinforced her family's strong connection to the group. "I feel like I'm at a family reunion," she said.

Richardson was introduced by Stephen Bittel, a Miami real estate developer who met Richardson a year ago.

"This is not going to be a professionally packaged politician but somebody who really speaks the truth," Bittel told the council members. "This is the real deal and a real candidate."