In Visit to Denmark, Powell Notes ‘Tough Weeks’ in Iraq

COPENHAGEN —  Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said Thursday that falling support among Americans for the war in Iraq reflected the “several tough weeks” that the U.S.-led coalition has faced there.

Once the U.S. regains control of the Iraqi cities of Fallouja and Najaf, support will rebound, he said.

Powell spoke during a brief question-and-answer session with reporters after a meeting here with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller.

Denmark has been a strong U.S. ally in Iraq. Powell’s talks with the foreign minister, which came after they met Monday in Washington, suggested that an effort was being made to show support for the Danish government, which has faced increasing pressure at home for its backing of the war.

The defense minister resigned a week ago amid criticism that the military exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein to justify the U.S.-led war.

Powell stopped in Denmark at the end of a two-day visit to Europe, during which he addressed an anti-Semitism conference in Berlin.

With Powell at his side, Moeller said he and the secretary had “agreed on the necessity to having a determined stand in Iraq.” There was, Moeller said, “no contradiction between the United States and Denmark on this matter.”

Denmark has about 500 troops in Iraq, and they will remain there while their presence is needed, Moeller said.

The show of support contrasts with the recent decision by Spain to withdraw its contingent. Honduras and the Dominican Republic have announced that they will be following in Spain’s footsteps.

Support in the United States, meanwhile, showed signs of weakening.

A New York Times-CBS News poll released Tuesday found that 47% of respondents said the United States had done the right thing in launching the war, down from 58% a month earlier.

Forty-six percent of respondents said the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq -- up from 37% a month ago.

The new poll was released nearly a year after President Bush’s declaration, delivered under a banner reading “Mission Accomplished,” that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

“We have run into several tough weeks. We acknowledge that. The resistance we’ve seen in recent weeks has been determined resistance,” Powell said, adding that when U.S. troops are injured or killed, “people start to wonder about it and it is reflected in polls.”

But, he added, “once we deal with the current difficult situation in Fallouja and also in the Najaf area, people will recognize we are on top of it and the polls will reflect that people understand what we are doing.”

“The American people understand what they have been asked to do. They fully understand the value of what we are doing,” he said.

The poll was taken as new reports continued to depict a deteriorating situation in Najaf, a holy city to Shiite Muslims, and in Fallouja, a stronghold of the anti-U.S. insurgency. April has been marked by a surge in U.S. casualties.

Before the meeting, Powell spoke at the Frederiksberg Gymnasium, a school for those in their late teens and early 20s. It is Moeller’s alma mater.

The school is an ethnically mixed institution; about 30% of its students are the children of immigrants, it said. Many of them are Muslims.