  It is shown that two physical phenomena are important for high excitations:
(i) the screening of the universal gluon-exchange potential and (ii) the
flattening of the confining potential owing to creation of quark loops, and
both effects are determined quantitatively. Taking the first effect into
account, we predict the masses of the ground states with $l=0,1,2$ in agreement
with experiment. The flattening effect ensures the observed linear behaviour of
the radial Regge trajectories $M^2(n)=m_0^2 + n_r \mu^2$ GeV$^2$, where the
slope $\mu^2$ is very sensitive to the parameter $\gamma$, which determines the
weakening of the string tension $\sigma(r)$ at large distances. For the
$\rho$-trajectory the linear behaviour starts with $n_r=1$ and the values
$\mu^2=1.40(2)$~GeV$^2$ for $\gamma=0.40$ and $\mu^2=1.34(1)$~GeV$^2$ for
$\gamma=0.45$ are obtained. For the excited states the leptonic widths:
$\Gamma_{\rm ee}(\rho(775))=7.0(3)$~keV, $\Gamma_{\rm
ee}(\rho(1450))=1.7(1)$~keV, $\Gamma_{\rm ee}(\rho(1900))=1.0(1)$~keV,
$\Gamma_{\rm ee}(\rho(2150))=0.7(1)$~keV, and $\Gamma_{\rm
ee}(1\,{}^3D_1)=0.26(5)$~keV are calculated, if these states are considered as
purely $q\bar q$ states. The width $\Gamma_{\rm ee}(\rho(1700))$ increases if
$\rho(1700)$ is mixed with the $2\,{}^3S_1$ state, giving for a mixing angle
$\theta=21^\circ$ almost equal widths: $\Gamma_{\rm
ee}(\rho(1700))=0.75(6)$~keV and $\Gamma_{\rm ee}(1450)=1.0(1)$~keV.
