Press encounter with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, (unofficial transcript)

Colin Powell: Well, good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. It's been my pleasure to receive once again Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has been here in the course of the day to meet with President Bush, to receive a number of awards in the course of the day befitting the contributions that he has made to peace and humankind, and we are especially pleased to have him in Washington, just about on the eve of his departure for Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Price. And, once again, Mr. Secretary General, congratulations.

We have had a chance to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and to talk about not just the military campaign but the humanitarian effort that we are all committed to, the reconstruction effort that we are all committed to, and to review the progress of the discussions in Bonn with respect to the creation of a provisional government. Those talks seem to be going reasonably well in their second day.

We also talked about other areas of interest, especially the Middle East, and the usual range of issues that the Secretary-General and I speak of. So I would like to invite him to say a word or two and then we will take a question or two before the Secretary-General has to leave to be up on Capitol Hill by 4 o'clock.

So, Mr. Secretary-General, Kofi, my friend, welcome again.

SG: Thank you very much. I am very happy to be here once again, to be able to continue our usual constructive discussions. We have had a very good exchange. And I think on the talks in Bonn, my only message to the Afghans and the Afghan leaders who are in Bonn, is that they have a unique and historic responsibility to do something for their people who have suffered for far too long not to be given a chance to live in peace and in stability. And that if they seize this moment and form a broad-based government, a broad-based transitional administration, the international community will have a partner to be able to carry out the kinds of programs Secretary Colin Powell has referred to. Because without a credible partner, we are not going to be able to put in the kinds of resources that will be required to develop the country.

So I urge them and plead with them for the sake of their people and their country and the region to show the leadership required and work with Lakhdar Brahimi, my representative, to come up with the right decisions.

Thank you. We will take your questions.

Q: Secretary Powell, has anyone outside of our ilk asked you to explain what exactly the President meant when he said on Monday that Saddam Hussein would just have to wait and see what happens if he doesn't allow weapons inspectors back in? And if they haven't, if they do ask you, what will you tell them?

Colin Powell: I will tell them to listen carefully to what the President said. The President said that the Iraqi regime should allow the UN inspectors back in to complete their very, very important work. And when the President was asked, and what if they don't, what will happen, what he said was, "He'll find out." And I think that's a pretty good statement. I'll leave it stand. I don't think it requires any amplification at this point.

The President and the international community, we all have a full range of options available to us to keep trying to get rid of these programs of weapons of mass destruction that Saddam Hussein has been trying to work on for the last 10 years. But the President's statement seemed to me to be clear, declaratory, and not requiring an amplification. I think everyone understood what he meant.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, would you like the -- this is a question addressed to both of you, if I may -- would you like the parties in Bonn to agree to non-Afghan peacekeepers to be deployed in Afghanistan?

SG: I think obviously we are all looking at the security environment in which we will have to operate, either to deliver humanitarian assistance or for the new administration to assume its responsibilities and carry on the rehabilitation and reconstruction. But this is an issue that I think, as we move forward, we will also discuss with the Afghan leadership as it is emerging.

But I will have to say that we are looking at the security situation which, for the moment, is impeding some of the assistance in certain parts of the north and the south. But we haven't taken any concrete decision as to what sort of security regime should be put in place to secure the environment. We will get to that later.

Colin Powell: Thank you. I've got to get the Secretary-General on his way. *****