Mayor Bloomberg is using his campaign promise record as an excuse to talk about presidential politics, saying yesterday that the press must hold presidential candidates accountable and force them to explain their solutions to tough issues.

By the mayor’s count, his administration is fulfilling 96% of the 100 promises made during the 2005 campaign. More than 91% of the 482 promises made during the 2005 and 2001 campaigns are completed or are being implemented, he said.

“I’m not running for president, but I do think that every presidential candidate should put out a list of every single one of the key issues,” Mr. Bloomberg said, directing his comments to reporters attending a news conference at a high school in Queens. “If some of them miss some of them, go and get them to fill those in and create a matrix. This is what I’d do.”

Mr. Bloomberg is considered a possible presidential candidate and appears to enjoy speculation about a White House run.

In fact, he further stoked the fire on such talk, reminding reporters that he is delivering an energy speech in Houston and a commencement speech in Oklahoma on Friday. His travel schedule, which this year has included trips to Mexico, Ireland, London, and Israel, has fueled murmurs about a national campaign. He said the “most likely scenario” is that he will finish his term and begin a career in philanthropy.

When asked about issues the press corps should watch carefully in the presidential campaign, Mr. Bloomberg said everyone wants peace and prosperity, but candidates must explain how they are going to achieve it.

“Nobody wants the war in Iraq to continue, but how are you going to pull out and what happens next?” he said. “You’ve got to be able to say, ‘If pulling out of Iraq causes this, this is what I would do.’ ‘If staying in Iraq causes that, this is what I would do.'”

Talk of the war in Iraq and the presidency also hung in the air at the Newspaper Association of America’s annual convention in Times Square, where a White House hopeful, Governor Huckabee, and Governor Spitzer weighed in on Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and governing.

“It is an embarrassment before the nation, before the world, that we cannot pass a budget that funds our troops, that ensures their safety and their security,” Mr. Spitzer said. “The underlying intellectual argument for it is now bankrupt.”