Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the situation in Iraq is much worse than previous conflicts that were called civil wars, like Lebanon.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr. Annan said he agreed with Iraqis who say that things are worse than they were under the regime of Saddam Hussein.

If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, "Am I going to see my child again?" And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control.

The society needs security and a secure environment for it to get on – without security not much can be done – not recovery or reconstruction.

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Annan said Iraqis themselves must "come together" and work to end the violent conflict between factions, under the strong guidance of the country's leadership.

They would need help from the international community and their neighbours, but some of the key things they have to do is the constitutional review, really, looking at issues of revenue sharing, oil and taxation revenues, how do you share it fairly amongst the three groups, or four groups? How do you share power?

I mean, all the struggle is about each group's position in future Iraq, and if you don't deal with those issues, which during the constitution were swept under the rug, they are going to face very serious problems and I think they should be tackled.

Annan said he also believed that the UN could have stopped the war if it had worked a bit harder and given the UN inspectors more time. He said the war has greatly damaged the UN as an institution.

I was also concerned that for the US and its coalition to go to war without the consent of the Council in that particular region, which has always been extremely controversial, would be extremely difficult and very divisive and that it would take quite a long time to put the organization back together, and of course it divided the world too.

It is healing but we are not there yet. It hasn't healed yet and we feel the tension still in this organization as a result of that.

Annan said his biggest regret as secretary-general is the loss of the lives of 23 "colleagues and friends" whom he sent to Iraq to help clean up the aftermath of a war he "genuinely did not believe in," and who were killed when the UN compound in Baghdad was bombed in 2003.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported in late November that Annan said the US is "trapped in Iraq." "It cannot stay and it cannot leave. There are those who maintain that its presence is a problem and there are those who say that if it leaves precipitously, the situation will get worse." Reuters reports that this is one reason that Annan is supportive of the work of the Iraq Study Group, headed by former US Secretary of State Jim Baker.

He said that the US Iraq Study Group, which is about to release its report, recognized that "things are not working the way they had hoped and that it is essential to take a critical review – take a critical look at what is going on and, if necessary, change course."

The CBC also reported that Annan said he believed Syria and Iran could be "part of the solution" to de-escalating the Iraq conflict. But News24 of South Africa reports that most Iraqi leaders rejected the idea, put forward by Annan last week, that an international conference be held to address the violence. Senior Shiite cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim said it is "neither reasonable nor correct to discuss questions relative to Iraq in the framework of international conferences." Former interim Prime Minister Ilad Allawi, however, said Iraq cannot solve its problems alone, The Associated Press reports.

"It needs the participation and support of everyone and that's a debt owed to the people of Iraq by foreign nations to support Iraq and stop the bloodshed," he said in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV.

"It is in the interest of the region and Iraq to have an international and regional consensus in dealing with the situation in Iraq. The issue of Iraq is not local. It is international," he added.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Annan, who leaves his post on December 31, will be remembered as an impressive public speaker and an eloquent statesman, but that his "administrative failures badly damaged the UN's standing."

The investigation into its oil-for-food programme in Iraq exposed a culture of cronyism and graft, and the organization's bloated bureaucracy, which consumes more than £2.8 billion a year and employs 50,000 people, badly needs restructuring. Mr Annan drew up a series of plans to implement reform but progress has been painfully slow.

The Independent Online of South Africa reports that Annan has said that he will make the crisis in Darfur his priority during his last month in office. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon will succeed Annan as secretary-general of the UN on Jan. 1.

• 'Fear took over' in Baghdad raid (Los Angeles Times)
• Qatar to help pay Palestinian wages (Al Jazeera)
• Annan: Israel's actions compromise efforts to stabilize the Israeli-Lebanon border (Associated Press)
• US report finds fault in training of Afghan police (New York Times)
• Who lost Turkey? (Newsweek)

Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.