Washington: In a fresh warning to North Korea and Syria, US has asked them to draw lessons from Iraq's experience and desist from developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

"Do you want my advice, Mr Rogue State Leader? You are wasting your money on fool's gold. So it seems to me that any leader who wishes to remain a leader, who does not wish to put his future at risk, looking at Iraq would suggest to them that it is think to rethink their policies," Secretary of State Colin Powell said on April 28 in an interview to 'US News'.

Powell said this was the message US had been giving to Syria and what it will convey to North Korea during the tripartite talks to diffuse crisis triggered by Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

Rejecting criticism that US' war on terrorism was directed against the Muslims, Powell said in the four conflicts in the last 12 years in Muslim countries, not one of those four places has become an American colony or an American State.

"Every place has been returned to Muslims," he said, adding "In the case of Kuwait and Afghanistan, the US saved them from a fate worse than death and Kosovo Albanians Iraqis have been saved from a dictatorial, terrorising regime."

PTI