US Secretary of State Colin Powell is weary and would not want to serve another whole four-year term under US President George Bush, a close aide says.
"He's tired. Mentally and physically," Mr Powell's chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, who has known the retired general for 15 years, is quoted as telling GQ Magazine. "If the President is re-elected and the President were to ask him to stay on, he might for a transitional period, but I don't think he'd want to do another four years."
Mr Wilkerson also describes US sanctions policy against countries such as Pakistan and Cuba as "the dumbest policy on the face of the earth".
The article, which includes an interview with Mr Powell, is illuminating for the comments made by his close friends and colleagues, who are explicit about his distrust and disdain for the hawks in the Administration.
Mr Powell's deputy, Richard Armitage, remarks on his boss' anguish at the damage to his credibility after his speech to the UN last year making the case for war and insisting there were weapons of mass destruction.
"It's a source of great distress for the secretary," he says.
