http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/19/international/middleeast/19CND-POWE.html

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

Published: March 19, 2004

AGHDAD, March 19 - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, making a quick stop in Iraq, acknowledged today that bombing attacks had increased recently and got a taste of the political problems related to the violence when 30 journalists walked out of his news conference to protest the killing of two colleagues.

Mr. Powell's visit, which was unannounced and carried out under extremely tight security, was intended to highlight the progress under way in Iraq on the first anniversary of the start of the war, complementing a week of activities by President Bush and others.

Instead, his major public appearance in the Iraqi capital was jolted by the walkout by a group of Iraqi and Arabic journalists who charged that the occupation by American-led military forces had led to the killing of two journalists from Al Arabiya television network on Thursday.

Al Arabiya, a satellite news channel based in Dubai, reported that one of its cameramen had been killed and a reporter wounded by American soldiers. According to the report, the two men were in a car when American soldiers opened fire on another vehicle that was racing toward a checkpoint in Baghdad. An American military spokesman said the command was checking the report.

Mr. Powell said today that he regretted the incident and that "it will be looked into," but said he was "confident that it wasn't anything that was deliberate."

Noting the anniversary of the start of the war, Mr. Powell opened the news conference after the Iraqi walkout by hailing what he said were the signs of progress in Iraq, including the establishment of "freedoms to Iraqis of the kind they have never enjoyed before, as you just saw exercised a few moments ago."

At the secretary's side was L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator, who had joined in discussions earlier with military leaders and with seven members of the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, the handpicked group that is still struggling to decide what sort of interim government will take power in Baghdad on June 30.

There was no sign of progress in the impasse over the composition of that government, which is to take power when Iraq's sovereignty is restored on that date. A decision on the makeup of the interim government was supposed to have been made by the end of February but it has been postponed because of disagreements among Iraqi leaders.

Mr. Powell arrived in the early morning from Kuwait aboard a military transport plane and was then taken by helicopter to the occupation headquarters at one of Saddam Hussein's presidential palaces inside the secure perimeter on the Tigris River known as the green zone.

Meeting with a couple of hundred occupation employees in a cavernous meeting room that has been converted into a dining facility, Mr. Powell sought to assure everyone that the debate in the United States over the war did not mean that their work was unappreciated.

"You can be proud of what you and your buddies have done," Mr. Powell said as the audience cheered. "Let no one ever tell you otherwise."