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Situation in Iraq `much worse than civil war': Annan

The current situation in Iraq is "much worse" than civil war, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in an interview with the BBC to be broadcast yesterday.

Calling the situation "extremely dangerous," Annan said that the international community must help the country to rebuild because he is uncertain Iraq can accomplish this on its own.

"Given the level of violence, the level of killing and bitterness and the way that forces are arranged against each other, a few years ago, when we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war; this is much worse," Annan said.

Last week, when asked by reporters if Iraq was in civil war, Annan said "almost."

During the interview with the BBC World Service, Annan agreed when it was suggested that some Iraqis believe life is worse now than it was under former president Saddam Hussein's regime.

"I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life," Annan said. "If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, `Am I going to see my child again?'"

"And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control. The society needs security and a secure environment for it to get on -- without security not much can be done -- not recovery or reconstruction," Annan said.

That lack of security was highlighted yesterday when an Interior Ministry source said police found 50 bodies with gunshot wounds in Baghdad on Sunday. The source said most of the bodies bore signs of torture.

Meanwhile, US President George W. Bush was to host one of the most powerful leaders of the Muslim Shiite majority, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, yesterday.

The White House meeting with Hakim was seen by some analysts as a sign of Bush delving more deeply into Iraqi politics in the quest for a new strategy that could stabilize Iraq and allow US troops go home.

In other developments, one US Marine was killed and three servicemen were missing after a US helicopter with 16 people on board made an emergency landing in a lake in Anbar Province on Sunday, the US military said yesterday. The military said the incident did not appear to be a result of enemy action.

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