Washington: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has opposed President George W Bush's decision against the use of race in determining university admissions and said such "affirmative action" policies were necessary.

"I'm a strong believer in affirmative action," Powell, the highest ranking African American said.

"I wish it was possible for everything to be race-neutral in this country, but I'm afraid we're not yet at that point where things are race-neutral," he said on CNN's 'Late Edition'.

"I believe race should be a factor, among many other facts, in determining the makeup of the student body of a university," Powell said.

US President Bush on January 15 had opposed the University of Michigan's system of affirmative action aimed at helping the minority students, saying the action "amounts to a quota system" that rewards or penalises students solely based on their race and that the method used by the institution was "fundamentally flawed".

PTI