MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Beginning a January drive for votes in New Hampshire and Iowa, Bill Bradley and Al Gore tried today to contrast the themes of their competing campaigns. Bradley promised "a world of new possibilities" while Gore countered that America needs "good decisions with good leadership."

Bradley, in New Hampshire, and the vice president, in Davenport, Iowa, both emphasized education and health care as top priorities but -- keeping their gloves on, for now, and not directly criticizing each other -- hinted at differences in accomplishing their goals.

"We need leadership that is prepared to take risks," Bradley said, laying out for his audience at an interactive youth science center the five big issues he would tackle: universal access to health insurance, child poverty, more new teachers in public schools, tighter gun control and campaign finance reform.

"Some people say we can never achieve our special destiny, but I say, in a world of new possibilities guided by goodness, we can and we will," Bradley said.

On Tuesday, Bradley will offer a budget proposal to close tax loopholes and eliminate tax shelters, aides said.

Gore, in remarks prepared for his speech later today, tried to offer himself as the tried-and-true national leader after seven years in the White House, and one capable of addressing more than a few national problems.

"We cannot afford to say that meeting one of these challenges is enough. All of them are well within our reach if we believe in the idea of America, if we trust one another, and if we make good decisions with good leadership," Gore said.

In New Hampshire, where voters decide the nation's first primary on Feb. 1 and where anti-Washington sentiment traditionally is a strong selling point, Bradley sought to turn Gore's White House tenure -- and 16 years in Congress before that -- against him.

"Only those who have never left Washington have missed the lessons of the last decade," Bradley, himself an 18-year Senate veteran, said to hearty applause at Manchester's FIRST science center.

Bradley got the post-holiday jump on Gore, with campaign stops Sunday in Boston and Concord, N.H., while Gore enjoyed one last day with his family before the month of virtually nonstop campaigning for Iowa's Jan. 24 delegate caucuses and the New Hampshire primary -- the first two nominating contests.

The two candidates meet Wednesday night in New Hampshire for their fourth debate of the season, and again Saturday in Iowa.

The battle for endorsements was also being played out this week, with Gore -- the Democratic establishment's favorite -- unveiling additional supporters among local New Hampshire officials and Bradley holding a rally Wednesday morning to trumpet the backing of several women activists. Today, Bradley added Chicago-area Rep. Luis Gutierrez to the handful of congressional endorsements, compared with the 100 or more members of Congress backing Gore.

While each candidate was jumping from the January starting gate on a high-minded note -- Bradley dubbed his remarks today a "Millennium Address" -- Gore spokesman Chris Lehane held out the prospect blunt politicking to come.

"As we move into January and the voters of New Hampshire and Iowa begin focusing more and more on specific issues -- issues they may talk about with their families at the breakfast table and the dinner table -- they will see differences," the Gore spokesman said.

"And we're going to be real clear about what those differences are -- whether it's supporting Medicare, making education a top national priority, keeping the economy strong through fiscal discipline, or an approach to health care that would be effective and would work compared to Senator Bradley's approach."

Bradley adviser Anita Dunn promised return fire. "If circumstances warrant, we're clearly respond," she said.

The Bradley campaign tried to blunt Gore's claim to fiscal prudence by asserting in a news release today that the vice president's campaign promises would overspend the $1-trillion projected budget surplus by as much as $350 billion. Bradley aides maintained that Gore underestimated costs of several proposals, including teacher salary increases, and simply left others out of the tally he said can be wholly paid for with surplus funds.

For months -- and with some success, according to polls -- Gore has painted Bradley's agenda as too expensive to fit within a balanced budget.