WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet) -- Two US senators said on Sunday that they were opposed to an amendment to the Constitution to allow California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president in 2008.

Schwarzenegger said he was joking when he predicted in 1977 that he would become president. "You've got to have a little bit of sense of humor about all this," he said. (AP/file)

    "I probably wouldn't" support a constitutional amendment to allow foreign-born people who have been US citizens for 20 years to run for president, Senator Rick Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said in NBC News' "Meet the Press" program.

    Santorum said there were many "pressing issues to change than allowing people who are born overseas" to run for president. "So I don't see any reason," he said.

    Senator Joe Biden, a Democratic from Delaware, also expressed reluctance to support a constitutional amendment. "I want to help Arnold any way I can, but I'm incredibly reluctant to amend the Constitution for any purpose," he said.

    Also on Sunday, Schwarzenegger said in ABC News' "This Week" program that he had never seriously considered running for president.

    "I don't think the idea is that all the push (to change the Constitution) is because of me. I mean, I have never thought about running for president, and this is not my vision," he said.

    Schwarzenegger said he was joking when he predicted in 1977 that he would become president. "You've got to have a little bit of sense of humor about all this," he said.

    Several members of the US Congress have proposed amending the Constitution so that immigrants like Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria and obtained US citizenship in 1983, to run for president after being American citizens for 20 years.

    At the "Meet the Press" program, Biden also said Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former president Bill Clinton, would become "the most difficult obstacle" for anyone to become the party's nominee in 2008.

    He said Hillary Clinton, 57, who has said she plans to run for re-election to represent New York at the Senate in 2006, was likely to be the nominee and "is able to be elected president of the United States." Enditem