Iraq in civil war, worse than under Saddam: Annan

United Nations, Dec 4: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraq was in the grips of a civil war and many people were worse off now than under Saddam Hussein, according to an interview to be broadcast tomorrow.

Annan, who leaves office on December 31 described Iraq as being in an extremely dangerous situation and again questioned the ability of Baghdad's leadership to solve the civil strife by themselves.

''When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war -- this is much worse,'' Annan said in an interview with BBC television and radio. Last week Annan told reporters Iraq was nearing civil war.

He said he agreed with Iraqis who claim that life is worse now than it was under Saddam. ''I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life,'' he told interviewer Lyse Doucet, who spoke to him on Friday. BBC provided a transcript of the interview.

''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?'' Annan said.

''And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control,'' he said.

Annan, who has proposed an eventual international conference on Iraq, which Baghdad's leaders have rejected, said, ''Iraqis will have to come together and make it happen'' but they would need outside assistance.

''They would need help from the international community and their neighbors, but some of the key things they have to do is the constitutional review, really looking at issues of revenue sharing - oil and taxation revenues, how do you share it fairly,'' he said.

Since the U S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was not approved by the U N Security Council and Annan subsequently called 'illegal,'' divisions among U N members has sharpened.

''I really believed that we could have stopped the war and that if we had worked a bit harder, given the inspectors a bit more time, we could have,'' Annan said.

''I was also concerned that for the U S and its coalition to go to war without the consent of the Council in that particular region, which has always been extremely controversial, would be extremely difficult and very divisive and that it would take quite a long time to put the organization back together, and of course it divided the world too,'' Annan said.

He said that the U S Iraq Study Group, which is about to release its report, recognized that ''things are not working the way they had hoped and that it is essential to take a critical review - take a critical look at what is going on and, if necessary, change course.'' Asked about his biggest regret, Annan said it was the August 2003 bombing of U N headquarters in Baghdad, in which 23 people perished, including the head of the mission, Brazilian Sergio Veiria de Mello, a popular U N official.

''It was 23 wonderful colleagues and friends I sent to Iraq who got blown away. They went to Iraq to try and help clean up in the aftermath of a war I genuinely did not believe in,'' Annan said.

''And these people, who were wonderful professionals, wonderful friends, were blown up overnight. And of course when that happens, you ask questions, you know: Would they be here if there hadn't been this situation? Would they be here if I hadn't asked them to go?,'' he said.

Reuters