United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Iraq was in the grip of civil war as the United States and Iraqi forces attacked insurgent bases in a bid to shore up the authority of a government itself driven by factional rivalries.
In Washington, outgoing Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was revealed to have acknowledged in a memo just before he lost his job that US strategy was not working and it might be better to reduce troop numbers.
President George W Bush has repeatedly rejected recent assertions in the mainstream media that Iraq is now embroiled in a civil war.
Annan's remarks, to the BBC, might add to pressure for a swift change of policy.
"When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war -- this is much worse," Annan said.
He agreed with Iraqis who said life was worse now than it was under deposed president Saddam Hussein.
"If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison -- that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, 'Am I going to see my child again?" Annan said.
"And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control," he added.
{{/usCountry}}"And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control," he added.
{{/usCountry}}In western Anbar province, two US soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb on Saturday and three Marines died from wounds sustained from enemy action, the US military said.
The Rumsfeld memo, written a day before voter dismay over Iraq cost the Republicans control of Congress, said: "It is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what US forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough."
Rumsfeld, a leading planner of the Iraq war, outlined several options but endorsed none.
Among them were reductions in US forces and bases and a recasting of the US goals there. He suggested cutting US bases to just five from 55 by mid-2007.