HARLESTON, S.C. - Elizabeth Dole, the Republican presidential candidate, said yesterday that the United States cannot rely on international treaties or nuclear test bans to protect it from the threat of foreign missile attacks.
Adopting the ''peace through strength'' theme of former President Ronald Reagan, Dole pledged to rebuild the US military and develop a missile-defense system while ''forging new relations'' with China and Russia.
''By acting quickly and forcefully to provide for the security of our citizens, and by forging new relations with Russia and China from a position of strength and resolute purpose, we will restore our nation's credibility abroad,'' she said.
Delivering what advisers billed as a major foreign policy speech at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, Dole said the Clinton administration had failed to combat looming threats to US national security and seemed to have allowed public opinion polls to dictate foreign policy.
''This administration seems to view foreign affairs through the prism of domestic policy and opinion polls,'' she said in an advance copy of the speech provided to reporters. ''Can you imagine: Instead of leading, the administration lets surveys and focus groups determine our foreign policy.''
A former president of the American Red Cross and a two-time Cabinet member, Dole is seeking to break out of a pack of Republican presidential hopefuls trailing Governor George W. Bush of Texas in national polls.
In a CNN/Time poll released Friday, Dole got 8 percent, trailing Bush, with 53 percent, and former Vice President Dan Quayle, with 9 percent. Quayle dropped out of the race yesterday.
Dole said that international nuclear test ban treaties are unverifiable, and that there is no evidence they would reduce the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
If elected president, Dole said she would end US adherence to the international Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and oppose making the United States a signatory to the international Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
''Rogue regimes can be expected to refuse to sign it - or sign it and still violate it,'' she said. ''If North Korea launches a missile at Hawaii, or even the mainland, neither this treaty nor good intentions can turn it back.''
