US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday urged international agencies, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to stay in Iraq despite a spate of terrorist attacks on Baghdad.

"The last 24 hours has been very difficult. We don't know if it's a spike as a result of the beginning of Ramadan or whether it is something that we'll see continue," Powell told reporters at the State Department, referring to successive attacks in Baghdad, including one on the ICRC office in the Iraqi capital.

"It's of concern to us, and we hope that contractors, NGOs and the ICRC and the United Nations will make a considered assessment of their security situation, and hope they can find it appropriate to stay," the secretary said.

"They are needed. Their work is needed. And if they are driven out, then the terrorists win," Powell said.

He added that the international agencies and contractors have to balance their desire to do the job and stay with their security needs, advising them to be in close contact with US authorities in Iraq to get "a safer environment" for work.

The ICRC announced in Geneva on Monday that it would pull its foreign staff out of Baghdad after the suicide bomb attack on its Baghdad office killed two of its employees and 10 other people.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2003)