United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that Iraq is in the midst of civil war, and that many people are worse off now than when Saddam Hussein was in power, according to an interview broadcast on Monday.

|PIC1|Annan explained that Iraq was in an extremely dangerous situation, and questioned the ability of Baghdad's leadership to solve the chaos alone.

In an interview with the BBC, Annan, who will step down as UN chief on 31 December, said, "When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war - this is much worse."

In a transcript of the interview, 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," he added.

The Iraqi government has rejected Annan's proposals for an international conference on the country. In response Annan said, "Iraqis will have to come together and make it happen."

He stressed the importance of help from the international community to do this.

"They would need help from the international community and their neighbours, 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.

Annan also shared with the BBC his greatest regret, the August 2003 bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad in which 23 people perished, including the head of the mission, Brazilian Sergio Veiria de Mello, a popular UN 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 concluded.