A senior US diplomat who said the United States has shown "arrogance" and "stupidity" in Iraq said he "seriously misspoke" in an interview aired yesterday.
"We tried to do our best (in Iraq) but I think there is much room for criticism because, undoubtedly, there was arrogance and there was stupidity from the United States in Iraq," US State Department official Alberto Fernandez told al-Jazeera television, according to a Reuters reporter who heard the interview, which was in Arabic.
Mr Fernandez, the State Department's director of public diplomacy in the bureau of Near Eastern affairs, said that he had misspoken during the interview.
"Upon reading the transcript of my appearance on al-Jazeera, I realised that I seriously misspoke by using the phrase 'there has been arrogance and stupidity' by the US in Iraq. This represents neither my views nor those of the State Department. I apologise," Mr Fernandez said in a statement.
The State Department had said that the English translation of the comments posted on Al Jazeera's English-language website had misquoted Mr Fernandez.
Yesterday in Iraq, 13 police recruits were killed and 25 wounded in an ambush on a convoy of buses near the town of Baquba. Two other US soldiers were killed in fighting around Baghdad.
US military deaths in Iraq in October have reached 85, making it the most deadly month for Americans this year and adding to pressure on President Bush before Congressional elections next month in which Republicans could lose majorities in both houses.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has been meeting Shia clerics this week to enlist their support in calming militia infighting in southern Iraq as well as sectarian strife between Shias and Sunnis.
On Saturday Mr Bush held a videoconference with Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, top White House officials and US military officials in Iraq, who have admitted that a two-month plan to secure Baghdad has failed to rein in violence, and that the strategy is under review.
In his radio address on Saturday, Mr Bush said: "We will continue to be flexible, and make every necessary change to prevail in this struggle. . . . Our goal in Iraq is clear and unchanging."