Powell calls for patience amid rising toll in Iraq

"I would say to the American people that we always recognized this would be a dangerous operation," Powell said in an interview on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" program.

"And even though major combat action is over... we always expected there would be this residual problem of Fedayeen, of the Baath Party members, of old Saddam cronies and others who are coming in to make mischief, and they would have to be dealt with," Powell said.

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"I hope the American people will demonstrate the patience and the understanding of the situation," he added.

"My experience with the American people is when they know it's going to be tough and it's going to take a while, they will give us that patience and give us that understanding as we work our way through this."

US forces were searching Friday for two soldiers believed abducted along with their vehicle as attacks against coalition troops in Iraq continued, with one soldier killed and another shot in the face.

The Pentagon announced Friday that 60 US soldiers have died in Iraq since President George W. Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1. Twenty were killed in hostile fire, while 40 deaths were not combat-related.

Meanwhile, in another sign of the increasingly perilous security situation in Iraq, six members of Britain's military police force were killed and eight other British soldiers were wounded in separate attacks Tuesday in southern Iraq, the first known fatal incidents involving British troops since the end of the war.

Powell said he hoped the mounting casualty toll would not increase pressure to withdraw US troops from Iraq prematurely.

"I hope it does not. I hope it increases the pressure on us to get the security situation under control more quickly," he said.