Washington -- One year after U.S.-led forces began their war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the coalition in Iraq is "still strong," and called upon nations of the world to continue to respond to the threat of terrorism.

Speaking in Baghdad March 19, Powell said that despite recent criticisms by Spain's newly elected government and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, many other nations have since "reinforced their commitment to this effort."

Powell said that "there will be difficult days ahead," particularly with regard to security in the country, but he said the United States must be firm in its resolve to succeed in Iraq.

"[W]e must not let anyone believe that we won't prevail. We will prevail because we owe it to the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people deserve it," he said.

Commenting on the recent bombings in Madrid and Baghdad, Powell said terrorism poses a threat to the "whole civilized world," and "the civilized world has to respond."

"[T]his is not the time to say let's stop what we're doing and pull back; this is the time to redouble our efforts in every way -- law enforcement activities, intelligence activities -- and deal with this threat to the civilized world and not run and hide and think that it won't come and get us. It will come and get us," he said.

Many of the terrorist attacks that have taken place over the past year in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Colombia, Morocco, and other places are "not attributable to the war in Iraq," he said.

"They're attributable to the fact that we have terrorists in the world who want to go after those nations that are trying to build a better future for their people, and are determined to kill innocent people to keep that from happening," he said.

Some journalists at the secretary's briefing walked out in protest over the deaths of two Al-Arabiya journalists who were killed by American soldiers March 18.

Powell said he was confident that the deaths were neither deliberate nor intentional.

"[A]t a scene where there's been a battle or an explosion or something of that nature, there tends to be confusion. It very often is dark. And mistakes happen. Tragedies can occur," he said, adding that he would wait for authorities to complete their investigation before making a final judgment about it.

"But let's be clear who is responsible for this -- terrorists," he said.

Secretary Powell outlined many infrastructure developments in Iraq, such as the rebuilding and repair of schools, hospitals, sanitation, water, oil and electrical systems.

The secretary said the U.S. Congress had recently appropriated $18 billion for the rebuilding and repair of institutions. With work contracts being signed, "I think you will see a great deal of new construction of the kind of institutions that this country very vitally needs," he said.

"What we are trying to achieve, in simple words, is to give Iraqis a country that they can be proud of that is based on democracy, freedom, individual rights of men and women, a free market system; an Iraq that will live in peace with its neighbors and with the world community. That is our goal," he said

"The United States will not shrink from this task," he added.