PARIS, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The United States has no strategic interest in ensuring that Iraq remain united, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton said in an interview published on Monday.

Bolton, a close ally of U.S. President George W. Bush who stepped down after Democrats made it clear they would block his renomination, also told Le Monde newspaper the United States should have handed power over to Iraqis more quickly.

"The United States has no strategic interest in the fact that there be one Iraq or three Iraqs," the newspaper quoted Bolton as saying.

"We have a strategic interest in ensuring that what emerges is not a completely failed state that becomes a refuge for terrorists, or a terrorist state," he said.

Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims are engaged in an embryonic sectarian civil war in Iraq, and Bush has said he will send 21,500 extra troops there in a bid to quell the violence.

Bolton said that decision was "the best of a series of bad options," adding that he believed the decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein was the right one, while admitting that mistakes had been made.

"In retrospect, we should have transferred authority to the Iraqis more quickly after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein," Bolton said, adding: "We did the Iraqis a disservice by depriving them of political responsiblities."

As for who led the country now, Bolton said Washington had no interest in any particular setup.

"Whether it is one state or three states, whether it is led by the Shi'ites or by a coalition, is not a matter for our strategic interest," he said.

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