LONDON, May 18: US Secretary of State Colin Powell criticised European political leaders in an interview published on Saturday, accusing them of “bashing” the United States over its war on terrorism.

Just days before President George W. Bush departs on tour of several European capitals, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said Powell claimed that contrary to the dominant European viewpoint, US foreign policy under Bush had been a resounding success.

Powell also defended Bush’s comments from earlier this year when the president labelled Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an “axis of evil”. His remarks were criticised by some European leaders.

“The president said “axis of evil” and it was amazing what happened after that in terms of the criticism that came our way,” Powell was quoted as saying.

“The president came up with a clever way of capturing them all and guess what — the North Koreans now want to talk to us. The Iraqis are trying to pretend they’re behaving better,” he told journalists representing a number of European newspapers.

At the time French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine derided the US approach as “simplistic”, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw suggested it was driven by domestic electioneering and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer warned Bush not to treat his allies like satellites.

“The evidence is also there that sometimes when we strike what we believe is a correct position and we explain it to people and people don’t agree with us it turns out that, a few months or half a year later, maybe we weren’t all that wrong,” Powell said.

Following Bush’s “axis of evil” remark the EU’s External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten warned Washington against going into “unilateralist overdrive” in its war on terrorism.

The Guardian quoted Powell as responding: “The suggestion that somehow the United States goes its own merry way without consulting with Europe is a canard. I spend an enormous amount of time listening to my European colleagues.”

He also sought to explain the increasingly anti-European tone of sections of the US media, saying it was a backlash against perceived anti-Americanism in Europe.

“To some extent it reflects the fact that we get bashed all the time. I think it may be something of a counter to the speed with which Europe always finds fault — some in Europe,” he said.

“There are some in Europe who are quick to find fault with any position that the United States might take that we believe is a correct principled position...so I think there is something of a reverse spin coming back on the rhetoric,” he said.

On Wednesday city officials in Berlin said they feared violence from protesters when Bush makes the first stop of his tour in Germany next Wednesday. The president will also visit Russia, France and Italy.

NO CHANGE IN LIST: Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria will remain on the US list of “state sponsors of terrorism” in a report to be released next week by the State Department, officials said on Saturday.