Updated

John Edwards, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004, says he would not seek the presidency in 2008 if his wife's health were to worsen.

"She's doing great. All the tests are good, and they're very encouraging," said the former North Carolina senator whose wife, Elizabeth, has been treated for breast cancer.

"But we have young children, Emma Claire and Jack, and the health of Elizabeth and how my family's doing would have to be at the front of anything," he said in an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

Edwards said another factor in his decision about whether to run in 2008 would be the status of the anti-poverty initiative he has undertaken since leaving the Senate.

"I think I have to see where we are in this work that I'm doing on poverty, how I think I can best advance that, and also just where the country is and what I think the country needs," he said.

Edwards said whether the 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., would run would not have an impact on his decision.