(AP) U.S.-led war in Iraq did not make world safer

The U.S.-led war in Iraq (news - web sites) hasn't made the world any safer, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said in a British TV interview aired Sunday.

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"I cannot say the world is safer when you consider the violence around us, when you look around you and see the terrorist attacks around the world and you see what is going on in Iraq," Annan told the ITV network.

"We have a lot of work to do as an international community to try and make the world safer," he said.

Annan has previously described the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein as "illegal." Annan also dismissed any suggestion that France, Russia and China had been prepared to ease sanctions on Saddam Hussein's Iraq in return for oil contracts. Iraq tried to manipulate foreign governments by awarding contracts — and bribes — to foreign companies and political figures in countries that showed support for ending sanctions, in particular Russia, France and China, the final report by the U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group said earlier this month.

"I don't think the Russian or the French or the Chinese government would allow itself to be bought..." Annan said.

Kofi Annan has spoken as leader of the U.N. Truth? Or a backlash for Bush's inability to cooperate? As a leader of an international organization, I tend to lean towards the fact that this is the truth. Conventional wisdom would tell you otherwise.