Colin Powell says US took too long to bolster Iraq forces

Washington: Colin Powell said on Sunday the US took too long to strengthen its forces in Iraq after Baghdad fell early in the war.

Powell, the nation's top military officer under President George H.W. Bush and secretary of state for President George W. Bush, said the decision to use a lighter force to defeat the Iraqi army was correct.

However, he said in a television interview broadcast Sunday that the younger Bush's administration should have realized the initial success in 2003 was only the start of a longer fight.

Powell said "Unfortunately, the war wasn't over" after Baghdad fell and Saddam Hussain was ousted.

He said it took the US too long to recognize that it needed to put more force in.

He told CNN he believed the outcome would be much different if the US had surged in the fall of 2003.