Interview on Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) with Jan Espen Kruse

MR. KRUSE: Mr. Secretary, Norway has scheduled to withdraw its forces from Iraq in July. What is your reaction to that?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, that was always their plan to have the (inaudible) for that period of time. I hope as we get closer to the time of withdrawal and we see an interim government take over and sovereignty returned to that interim government, and with a new UN resolution it might be possible for Norway to take another look at the contribution they have made to this effort and perhaps make another contribution or extend the stay of this particular company or replace it with a similar company.

I know that the Norwegian forces are stressed doing wonderful work in different parts of the world. This is an important part of the world. We've gotten rid of a terrible dictatorship. We're building a democracy. We are working hard to get the security situation under control. We very much appreciate the contribution that Norway has made.

MR. KRUSE: Spain and other countries have planned to withdraw their forces quite soon. What will the situation be for the United States if countries continue to leave the coalition?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, there are three countries that have said they do find it necessary to remove their troops from the coalition: Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic. All of the others have said they will stay, although there are some that will be watching, obviously, the security situation in the months ahead.

Most of the countries that contributed to the coalition hope that the security situation would be better than it currently is, so they're constantly reviewing their participation. But I'm pleased that all of the others, except for those three, so far have indicated they will stay.

MR. KRUSE: One year ago, the President declared mission accomplished in Iraq. Since then, more than 350 American soldiers have been killed in action. What has gone wrong?

SECRETARY POWELL: The mission was accomplished in the sense that this terrible regime was eliminated, a regime that filled mass graves, a regime that oppressed its people and wasted the resources of the nation. What we did not anticipate to see in such strength were the remnants of the old regime, individuals who are determined not to have democracy, not to let the people decide how they will be governed and they have gained some strength, and outsiders have come in and contributed to that strength, terrorists have come in.

And so they have to be defeated, and they will be defeated, and we will get on with the job of reconstruction; we'll get on with the job of rebuilding a nation and putting in place a democracy.

Yes, I regret the loss of every life. I regret that loss of life deeply, in those who were injured in this battle, but this is a battle worth fighting. This is a campaign worth winning because when we are finished, when we are successful, we will have a unique country, a democracy showing that three different groups, Kurds, Shias, Sunnis and other groups can live together in a pluralistic representative system.

And so we are dedicated, committed to this work and we will not flag. We will not lose our energy. We will not lose our will to make sure that the Iraqi people get what they deserve and what we promised.

MR. KRUSE: One year ago, the U.S. said that the UN was making itself irrelevant in Iraq. Now the U.S. wants the UN to have a central role. What has changed?

SECRETARY POWELL: Well, the President has said all along that he wanted the UN to play a vital role. The irrelevant line, the statement about irrelevancy had to do with the UN not acting as Saddam Hussein continued to violate its resolutions.

But from the very beginning of the campaign, the President made it clear that he wanted the UN to play a vital role. And that's why we encouraged Sergio de Mello to come over. We regret the tragic loss of that wonderful diplomat and the other UN individuals who perished on that day as a result of a terrorist bombing.

And now we are very pleased to be working with Ambassador Brahimi. I speak to Secretary General Annan almost every day now, and we want the UN to play the vital role that the President indicated a year ago he wanted the UN to play. And I sense that we're reaching a point with Ambassador Brahimi's report to the Secretary General that we will see the UN become even more deeply involved as sovereignty is transferred to an Iraqi government, an interim government.

MR. KRUSE: But why is it so important for the U.S. to have the time limit, the 30th of June?

SECRETARY POWELL: It was important to have a time limit to show the Iraqi people that the occupation, as they call it, the liberation, as we prefer to call it, of course, is coming to an end. We want to get Iraqis back in charge of their own country. We did not come to Iraq for the purpose of owning Iraq or running Iraq.

We came to Iraq to liberate the people, provide security for them as they built their democracy. We had success with the Governing Council. The Governing Council is functioning, but it doesn't have sovereignty. And so we want now to transition the Governing Council into an entity that we can return sovereignty to.

We will be there in considerable strength, over 100,000 U.S. troops and troop-contributing nations and other partners that are there. We'll be there for quite a bit of time to come. But it's important that the political face now be an Iraqi political face. That's why we are pushing them and we are anxious to move quickly to show the Iraqi people that their own leaders are in charge.

MR. KRUSE: Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you so much.