US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday defended US forces' action against Iraqi militants while expressing his hope of a peaceful solution to the conflict in the restive Iraqi city of Fallujah.  

"We are being as careful as we can not to injure civilians and not to damage holy places," Powell said on the sidelines of a pan-continental anti-Semitism conference in Berlin.

Powell condemned Iraqi militants for "using holy places to store weapons, to use them as observation points and to shoot at our troops..."

Later, after talks with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Powell said: "We will solve the problem one way or the other, hopefully peaceful."

US marines have surrounded the Sunni Muslim stronghold Fallujah, west of Baghdad, for about a month.

Asked whether the transfer of power in Iraq on June 30 was on track, Powell said: "I don't think our plan is in trouble... Let's just wait for the UN Secretary General to make the decision."

"We want to return as much sovereignty to this interim government as it is prepared to handle," he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2004)