WASHINGTON (AFP) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brushed aside on Monday the growing criticism of her role in prosecuting the Iraq war, declaring herself "very proud" to have helped oust Saddam Hussein in an exclusive interview with AFP.

But the top U.S. diplomat acknowledged feeling a "personal responsibility" for the bloodshed still taking the lives of hundreds of civilians each week nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion.

"I'm sure there are many, many things that we could have done differently, maybe should have done differently," Rice said when asked if she had any regrets over her part in the war.

But she added: "It's not just that I don't regret having participated in the liberation of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein -- but I'm very proud that this country finally helped to liberate 25 million Iraqis" from the dictator. Rice went on to admit that the slow pace of reconstruction, the ongoing anti-U.S. insurgency and "particularly the sectarian violence" between the minority Sunnis who ruled under Saddam and the formerly repressed Shiite majority "is very bad, and it's very hard to take."

"If you are at all responsible for the decision to overthrow Saddam Hussein, you feel a personal responsibility for what's going on there every day," she said.

Rice was U.S. President George W. Bush's national security advisor during the planning and execution of the March 2003 invasion and has overseen the troubled efforts at political and economic reconstruction since taking over as secretary of state in January 2005.

Several books on the war and its aftermath, including "State of Denial" by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, have laid much of the blame for the U.S. policy failures in Iraq on Rice and outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The Iraq Study Group headed by former secretary of state James Baker implicitly criticized Rice in its report issued last week for her unwillingness to engage with Iraq's neighbors, Syria and Iran.