WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican White House hopeful Rudy Giuliani has become the latest presidential candidate and the first in his party to announce plans to raise private funds for the 2008 general election, a spokeswoman tells CNN. But the former New York City mayor has left the door open to returning the money and accepting public funding down the road.

"We are raising private money for the primary and will begin raising private money for the general as allowed by the FEC ruling," said Maria Comella, a Giuliani spokeswoman, referring to a Thursday ruling by the Federal Election Commission allowing presidential candidates to begin tentatively raising private general election funds while preserving the option of accepting public funding at a later date.

The FEC issued its ruling in response to an inquiry by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who is also raising private funds for the general election, but has expressed interest in accepting public money if the eventual GOP nominee agrees to do the same.

"If Senator Obama is the nominee, he will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election," said Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman.

Democrats Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards have all said they will not accept public "matching funds" during the primaries, and have all been raising private funds for the general election.

"We have not decided at this time whether we will accept public funding if we win the nomination," Comella said. "In the instance we do accept public money, we will return the private money raised for the general election in accordance with FEC rules."

Representatives for the Clinton and Edwards campaigns did not respond to inquiries as to whether their candidates would also be willing to return private general election funding if the Republican nominee agrees to do the same.

A spokeswoman for Democratic candidate Chris Dodd says the Connecticut senator will also not accept primary matching funds but has not made a decision about the general.

"We're more skeptical than Sen. Obama that it's an option any Republican nominee would choose," said Dodd spokeswoman Christy Setzer.