WASHINGTON, May 17: US Secretary of State Colin Powell has admitted that the information he used in his UN Security Council address for justifying invasion of Iraq was false.

The admission, in a dramatic interview to NBC television, has assumed an added importance because of his aide's attempt to cut him off. Mr Powell, however, brushed off his deputy press secretary, Emily Miller, and went on to acknowledge that the CIA and other US agencies had received false information from their sources.

Mr Powell, who was in Jordan during the interview, was heard saying that NBC anchorman Tim Russert was "still asking me questions," to which a woman's voice answered, "No, he's not".

Mr Powell, still off camera, said: "Tim, I'm sorry, I lost you," and added: "Emily, get out of the way." Mr Russert, slightly irate, responded: "I think that was one of your staff, Mr Secretary. I don't think that's appropriate." After a few seconds the camera returned to Mr Powell and he finished the interview.

Mr Powell said the CIA and other US agencies were sometimes deliberately misled about alleged Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the war. The comments represented the first public admission from a senior US official that Washington had fed unchecked and unreliable information to the international community about Saddam Hussein's suspected arsenal of chemical and biological weapons.

"It turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading," Mr Powell said. "For that I am disappointed, and I regret it."

Mr Powell told the Security Council in Feb 2003 that the US administration had credible evidence that Iraq was making weapons of mass destruction. He insisted that the US government had "first-hand descriptions" of mobile biological weapons factories that he said presented a threat to international security.

Mr Powell disclosed that the information came from an Iraqi defector, a chemical engineer who supervised one of these mobile facilities, and corroborated by "other sources".

The speech, however, failed to persuade Security Council members to authorize the US-led military action against Iraq. But on Sunday, Mr Powell, acknowledged: "Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out to be not accurate. So I'm deeply disappointed."

The Iraqi defector in question has not been publicly identified. Mr Powell said he was "very concerned" about the fact that he was fed misleading information but insisted that this UN speech was based on "the best information that the CIA made available to me".