US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday that the weekend election in Afghanistan was "very successful" and he expressed confidence that the same thing could also happen in embattled Iraq.

"This was a very successful election, I mean, just the picturesalone tell you what the people of Afghanistan want," Powell said in an interview with Mouafac Harb of Al-Hurra, a US-sponsored satellite channel broadcasting to the 22 Arab countries in the world.

"The Afghan people made it happen by registering in so many numbers, 10 million of them registered and hundreds of thousands in Pakistan and Iran also registered to vote. The United Nations helped with this; the International Security Assistance Force helped with this; the United States helped with this; the coalition helped with it, but above all, the Afghan government themselves," Powell said.

Powell said this is illustrative of what is possible in other parts of the world, certainly illustrative of what can happen in Iraq.

"I think the same thing can happen in Iraq. We have a difficultinsurgency there, we are fighting that insurgency, we are fightingthe terrorists, but I believe the people of Iraq want the same thing the people of Afghanistan and people in so many nations want:the opportunities to step forward and decide who will be their future leaders and to decide that by a vote," Powell said.

The first-ever direct presidential election was held peacefullyin the post-conflict Afghanistan on Oct. 9 but the 15 opposition candidates of the US-backed leader Hamid Karzai have termed the poll as bogus.

Source: Xinhua