Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards embraced the idea of raising taxes on the managers of private-equity firms and hedge funds.

Edwards, who has made economic fairness a central issue of his campaign for the Democratic nomination, said he would announce within 10 days his position on a House bill that would force fund managers to pay taxes as high as 35 percent on their share of profits instead of the 15 percent capital-gains rate most pay now.

``It's not a big secret that I believe there's some unfairness in the tax code, and I think some of that unfairness applies to hedge funds and hedge-fund managers,'' Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' scheduled to air today.

Edwards, 54, who has worked for New York-based hedge fund firm Fortress Financial Group LLC, is the first Democrat running for president to signal support for the legislation. Among Republicans, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has said he opposes raising the managers' taxes.

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