US Secretary of State Colin Powell admitted Sunday that the United States miscalculated the difficulty in post-war Iraq and the insurgency in the country would go on for some time.

"We did miscalculate the difficulty, but we are not miscalculating the challenge we are facing now," Powell said in aninterview with the Fox News Sunday program.

That is why the United States is leaving nearly 140,000 troops in Iraq after the handover of sovereignty to the Iraqi interim government, Powell said.

As for the insurgency in Iraq, Powell said "it will go on for some time."

"This insurgency is not going to go away, but with the buildup of Iraqi security forces ... increasingly, Iraq will be able to deal with its own security problem, and I think the insurgency could be brought down to a level, and I would like to see it go away entirely," Powell said.

"I want to see it defeated, but I think, over time, you will see it being brought under control," Powell said.

Powell also defended the Iraq war launched by the Bush administration, claiming that the war was justified by toppling the Saddam Hussein regime.

"We did the right thing at the right place and the right time to get rid of that dictator and to give the Iraqi people a chance for peace," Powell said.

More than a year after the end of the Iraq war, the United States has failed to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,a major excuse for US President George W. Bush to go to war in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua