New York, Sept 07: The US decision to put forth a resolution asking for greater UN involvement in Iraq showed that the situation in the war-torn nation had become too challenging for any nation to tackle alone, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said. "It has become obvious that the challenge is much larger than anticipated and that one nation cannot tackle it alone," Annan told 'Time' magazine.

He expressed the hope that despite the differences before the war, "we can get an agreement on a new resolution." Asked if the US was wrong to go to war without UN approval, Annan said, "Obviously, it would have been better if there had been a bit of patience and the US had worked with the other states."

"In the absence of weapons of mass destruction," Annan added, "I think the case is weakened further" for why the US went to war. "There are issues no one nation - however powerful – can solve alone," the Secretary-General said.

Annan himself expects to serve three more years "and that's it." Though he has not yet decided what to do, he said, "I tell my friends that I would want to farm, that I would want to go back to nature. And my wife laughs at that."

Bureau Report