Powell operation declared a success

US Secretary of State Colin Powell underwent surgery for prostate cancer in Washington today.

"I’m happy to report that he’s out of surgery, that everything went fine,” said department spokesman Richard Boucher.

He said the surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre lasted about two hours and that Mr Powell’s prostate was removed.

“The doctors say he had a localised prostate cancer,” Boucher said . “They say he did extremely well. There are no complications and a full recovery is expected.”

Powell, 66, was expected to be in hospital for several days, then go home to recuperate. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will be in charge in his absence.

President Bush was informed of the surgery two weeks ago.

In a statement, the State Department said that after Powell returned home from surgery would be on a “reduced schedule.”

Powell, is a retired four star general who held the top military position, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, from 1989 to 1993. He held that position during the first Gulf War.

He has been Bush’s Secretary of State for his entire term. There has been much speculation whether he will continue in that position if Bush is re-elected next year.

In preparation for the surgery, Powell cleared his schedule and had no overseas trips planned at least for the rest of the year.

About 190,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed in the United States every year, and about 30,000 men died of the disease in 2002, according to American Cancer Society statistics. It is the most common cancer in American men and their second leading cause of cancer death after lung cancer.

Black men have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world for a variety of reasons ranging from genetics to poorer health care.