Monday, October 31 2005 11:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The absence of a charismatic and strong leader in Iraq has affected Washington's efforts to rebuild the war-torn Arab nation, US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has said.

Khalilzad, who served as US envoy to Afghanistan before taking on the ambassador post, said a leader like Hamid Karzai would have helped Iraq emerge from the chaotic situation which followed the ouster of President Saddam Hussien.

"The fact that Afghanistan had a charismatic leader, broadly accepted, in Hamid Karzai, was a huge asset," he told sources.

"The fact that such a figure was not identified (in Iraq) has been a problem," he added.

"I think a Hamid Karzai-type figure could have been identified early on, because when there is a role, usually a person can be found to fill it.

"But in Afghanistan we immediately went to an Afghan interim-government formation. Here we had a period of the CPA (coalition provisional authority), the interim US-led governing body," he said.

Khalilzad quickly added that he was not trying to blame his predecessors for this. "I wasn't responsible for Iraq at that time and the complexity of the situation may not be entirely clear to me," he said.

About his strategy to tackle Sunni insurgency, he said, "My philosophy is that we need to isolate two groups from the rest. The first is Zarqawi and the jihadists, some foreign and some Iraqis.

And the second is the Saddamists, those who want Saddamism to come back. As far as the rest are concerned, our effort has been to win them away".