Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell said the intelligence that led the U.S. to conclude Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction before the war ``did not stand the test of time.''

``Some of the sources were weak, some of the sources didn't hold up. They failed,'' Powell said on NBC's ``Meet the Press.'' ``And some parts of the intelligence community knew that some of these sources probably shouldn't have been listened to.''

The U.S. still did ``the right thing both in Afghanistan and in Iraq,'' Powell said. ``And this is not the time to get weak in the knees or faint about it, but to drive on and finish the work that we've started.''

Powell spoke less than a week after the number of U.S. military deaths surpassed 1,000 and the number of wounded topped 6,900 since the invasion of Iraq began in March 2003. President George W. Bush said before the war that Hussein was a threat because his regime was stockpiling chemical and biological weapons and was pursuing nuclear arms. No evidence of such weapons has been discovered since Hussein's regime was ousted and an interim government formed.

A 511-page report issued in July by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that U.S. intelligence services suffered from ``significant shortcomings'' in collecting information about Iraq's weapons programs.

The conflict in Iraq is an issue in the election campaign between Bush and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee. Voters cite it as one of their top three concerns in polls, such as one released Saturday by Time magazine.

`Credibility'

Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in the administration of President Bill Clinton and an adviser to Kerry, said on ``Meet the Press'' that the insurgency in Iraq seems to be growing and ``it doesn't sound like'' elections can take place in January.

She said Bush ``squandered our credibility and our reputation'' by attacking Iraq, adding that Kerry ``has a much better chance of getting other countries in there, because he would listen to what they have to say and create a coalition that I think would make clear that this was in everybody's interest, and not just Americans acting as occupiers.''

Powell said the U.S. has to ``do a better job of conveying to the world'' what it accomplished in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Insurgents in Iraq battled U.S. troops in Baghdad and other areas of central Iraq today that left at least two dozen people dead, Agence France-Presse reported.

`A Good Cause'

Powell said the continuing insurgency is neither surprising nor insurmountable. ``I regret every loss of life,'' Powell said, adding that members of the U.S. military ``are doing it for a good cause. And we have to stick with this cause.''

A civil war in Iraq is ``always a possibility, but I don't think it's going to happen,'' he said.

The U.S. strategy over the next several months is to quell insurgencies in Samarra, Ramadi and Fallujah and bring those cities under government control in time for planned national elections in January, Powell said in a separate interview on ABC's ``This Week'' program.

``It's going to be, I think, sort of the way it was down in Najaf, where you use military force to squeeze the insurgents and then you try and find a political, diplomatic situation, so you don't have to use force to go into these places,'' Powell said.

Asked about his statement Thursday that the government of Sudan is participating in genocide in Darfur, Powell said ``the international community'' is responsible for deciding how to respond. ``We can't operate alone in this one,'' he said.

Sudan, Other Threats

The U.S. has asked the United Nations Security Council to consider sanctions to ``put more pressure and to cause Sudan to behave properly,'' the secretary of state said.

Regarding a possible future threat, Powell said the U.S. is in ``intense discussions'' with the International Atomic Energy Agency in hopes of pressuring Iran not to pursue a nuclear weapons program.

He said the U.S. doesn't have any indication that a massive explosion last week in North Korea was a test related to nuclear weapons, though ``Exactly what it was we're not sure.'' Other evidence is ``not conclusive'' that North Korea is moving toward testing a nuclear device, he said.

The U.S. is working with North Korea and its neighbors, including South Korea, in ``tedious negotiations, as these negotiations tend to be,'' with a goal toward eliminating nuclear activity on the Korean peninsula, Powell said on NBC.

Kerry has proposed that the U.S. and other nations allow Iran to keep its nuclear facilities in exchange for giving up the right to keep nuclear fuel that could be used to make bombs. Powell said Kerry's idea is not new. ``It's what we're doing now,'' he said on ABC.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in New York City at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 12, 2004 14:09 EDT