Annan and Powell spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a UN conference on Friday that pledged $520 million to finance reconstruction in Liberia, $200 million from Washington.

"The bar has been raised," Annan said. "People are going to be very suspicious when one talks to them about intelligence. And they are going to be very suspicious when we try to use intelligence to justify certain actions."

A year ago, on Feb. 5, Powell made a dramatic presentation to the UN Security Council, arguing that Iraq had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and was reconstructing its nuclear arms program as well as building advanced missiles.

"I don't think any apologies are necessary," he said when asked about the quality of intelligence used during his unsuccessful attempt to persuade council members of the need to invade Iraq.

Powell said President Bush's action to go to war, was totally justified by the information that he was provided. "We don't have to worry about now is whether there are any weapons of mass destruction or a Saddam Hussein in Iraq to use them," he said.

Powell said in a Washington Post interview this week he did not know if he would have supported the invasion if he had been told Iraq had no banned weapons.

What the United States was not sure of was "the nature of the stockpiles and these were still being examined," he said.

"We said that this was a regime led by a dictator who had every intention of keeping his weapons-of-mass-destruction programs going, and anyone who thinks he didn't is just dead wrong. And there is no evidence to suggest that that was an incorrect judgement, Powell said.

Powell later accused critics of politicising the US failure to find weapons of mass destruction said it is getting on his nerves.

"Yeah, it does get on your nerves when you see people trying to use this for straightforward political purposes Powell told Fox television.