Powell: Iraq coalition must not become weak-kneed

Acknowledging the Iraq war was unpopular in much of Europe, Powell thanked Hungary for contributing a 300-soldier transport battalion and likened its efforts to U.S. support for democracy when Central Europe laboured under Soviet domination.

Powell visited Budapest after the Philippines withdrew from Iraq this month to spare the life of a Filipino hostage, joining Spain, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Honduras as nations that have left what was once a 34-nation coalition.

While denying his 18-hour visit aimed to shore up support for the Iraq war, Powell argued that the United States and its allies did the right thing in toppling Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and in ousting Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

He also hinted he wanted Hungary to keep its troops in Iraq beyond its scheduled year-end departure. The Hungarian opposition has called for withdrawal of the troops, who suffered their first casualty in Iraq last month.

A Gallup Poll in June found 61 percent of Hungarians want the troops withdrawn immediately and a recent survey of 34,000 Hungarian teens showed they disliked U.S. President George W. Bush more than Saddam and al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"Democracy is hard. Democracy is dangerous. And this is the time for us to be steadfast, not get weak in the knees," Powell said in an interview on a Hungarian television channel. "We must not allow insurgents, those who will use bombs and kidnapping and beheadings, to triumph."

"We have done the right thing in both Afghanistan and in Iraq ... We have liberated 55 million peoples from dictatorial nightmares," Powell later told Hungarian diplomats in a speech.

Powell's visit came at the start of a week-long tour of Europe and the Middle East. He is scheduled to visit Egypt, Bosnia and Poland, as well as Iraq's neighbours Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

After a brief lull following the June 28 U.S. handover of sovereignty, guerrillas have stepped up suicide car bombings, assassinations and kidnappings in an effort to undermine Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and the U.S.-led coalition.

The interim government is heavily reliant on some 160,000 mostly U.S. foreign troops until it builds up its own forces to confront an insurgency whose ferocity U.S. officials did not anticipate before last year's invasion to topple Saddam.

Source: Reuters