Colin Powell was the US secretary of state on September 11, 2001,  serving as then-President George Bush's point man on the world stage.

Powell made the case for war with Iraq at the United Nations.

On behalf of the administration, Powell said Saddam Hussein was trying to buy raw material from Africa to build nuclear weapons and he gave an elaborate description of an Iraqi weapons programme, that as it turned out, never existed.

Now, Powell says the US government got it wrong.

In part one of a two-part interview, Al Jazeera's Tony Harris sat down with Powell to talk about his regrets at being the face of false intelligence.

Our correspondent asked the former US diplomat if the information he gave to the UN Security Council had been verified.