UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Confronting a growing political furor, Hillary Rodham Clinton conceded Tuesday it was a mistake to exclusively use private email as secretary of state, but she defiantly rejected accusations that she created a security risk or violated the law. She also defended getting rid of tens of thousands of personal emails.

"I fully complied with every rule I was governed by," Clinton said in a 20-minute news conference that marked her first comments on the controversy.

Clinton's acknowledgement that she deleted emails she described as personal in nature is likely to fuel further criticism from Republicans who see the matter as harmful to the former secretary of state's all-but-certain presidential campaign. Because Clinton's emails were run off a personal server that she does not intend to turn over to the government, there is no way to independently verify the content of the discarded emails.

Clinton said she had exchanged about 60,000 emails in her four years as President Barack Obama's secretary of state. Half were work-related and none contained classified information, she said.

The controversy has presented a major test for Clinton and upended her careful blueprint for the rollout of her campaign. The clear front-runner for the Democratic nomination, Clinton had planned to spend March touting her work on women's issues and giving a handful of paid speeches before announcing her candidacy in early April.

Instead, she found herself standing before dozens of reporters at the United Nations addressing a matter that has revived questions of ethics and secrecy that have long trailed Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Her appearance came after her previously scheduled speech on women's rights at the UN.

Before Tuesday's news conference, Clinton's only comment on the email disclosures had been a late-night tweet last week saying she wanted the State Department to make her emails public. Her decision to weigh in further came as Democratic allies began publicly pushing her to do so.