MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Tuesday proposed centralizing and expanding the regulation of lobbyists to reduce the influence of special interest money in Washington.

The change Americans crave – universal health care, new energy solutions and better economic policies for regular people – can’t happen unless the system for making deals in Washington is fundamentally changed, Obama said Tuesday in remarks to a voters’ round-table.

“We’re not going to be able to change America unless we challenge this system that isn’t working for us and hasn’t for a long time,” he said. “Now I know some will say that we can’t make this change, that the culture of corrosive influence in politics is too sprawling to spotlight or that the lobbyists writing our laws represent real Americans. … That’s not how I see it.”

The comment was a jab at top rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who last month defended lobbyists, saying many “represent real people,” and who has refused former Sen. John Edwards’ challenge to decline campaign donations from them.

Obama, a first-term senator, has pitched his relative newcomer status as a symbol for change against Clinton’s many years in Washington circles. He has joined Edwards in criticizing Clinton, despite his record of accepting donations from state lobbyists – including some who regularly played poker with him during his days as a state senator.

Obama said his plan would build on reforms he has supported as a U.S. senator. It would create a central database giving the public access to lobbying reports, ethics records and campaign finance filings. It would also expand lobbying disclosure rules to include lobbyists seeking government contracts and presidential pardons, and enforce congressional lobbying laws and ethics rules through an independent entity. Government contractors would be required to report money spent on lobbying and campaign contributions.

“When I am president, we will close the revolving door between public service and lobbying, ban all gifts from registered lobbyists, and end the abuse of no-bid contracts and the appointment of political cronies,” he said.

“Too often the American people don’t know who Washington is working for, and when they find out, they don’t like what they hear. A task force on energy policy made up of big oil companies. Health care and prescription drug legislation written by industry lobbyists. No-bid contracts for Katrina recovery lobbied for by the firm that bears the name of the governor of Mississippi. No-bid contracts in Iraq for Halliburton, a company that the vice president used to run,” he said.

Obama previously vowed to prohibit political appointees who left posts in his administration from lobbying the executive branch for the remainder of his time in office. Members of an Obama administration also would not be able to work on regulations or contracts directly related to their former employers for two years.

In the Senate, Obama has supported legislation that would impose additional restrictions on lawmakers becoming lobbyists and establishes new disclosure rules for lobbyists.