WASHINGTON - American secretary of state John Kerry considers the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 a huge mistake by the administration of then president George W. Bush.

The statement is expected to draw sharp reactions especially from former colleagues in the U.S. congress.

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In October 2002, Kerry was among the 29 Democratic Party senators who voted to support the Iraq War Resolution which authorized former president George W. Bush to order the invasion.

The next year, he announced his candidacy against Bush, got the party nomination in 2004, and lost the election.

Interviewed by Chinese-owned CCTV in Washington, Kerry said he was on record "not only in saying it was a grave mistake, but also in running against the president who ordered it, and offering an alternative."

Kerry also indicated that now, President Barack Obama is more inclined to "empower the Iraqis themselves" instead of sending additional troops aside from the current 750 securing the US embassy in Baghdad and advising the Iraqi military as it battles the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).

Relating the current situation to the 2003 invasion, Kerry said Iraq and other parts of the region suffer today because of the decision to invade in 2003.

The U.S. government, he said, will continue to support Iraq's movement toward a representative unity government, which was one of the objectives of the invasion.

The United Nations has reported that 2,400 people were killed in Iraq in June, many of them executed by the ISIS, or killed in sporadic battles with the ISIS.

On June 29, the ISIS declared an Islamic caliphate, a religious superstate stretching from eastern Iraq to the Syrian city of Aleppo.

TagsJohn Kerry, Barack Obama, 2003 Iraq invasion, George W. Bush