Defence force chief, General Peter Cosgrove, said carefully prepared plans for the war had always recognised the nature and size of the operation, in which 2,000 Australians are the third force in the US-led coalition.

"It's clear from were I stand that, notwithstanding some of the unexpected and unusual events that have occurred, the war is right on its timeline and well within the success parameters that the plan envisaged," he told reporters.

"After less than two weeks large sections of Iraq are under coalition control and the Iraqi army has been severely weakened. The regime has been hit precisely and hard.

"The south of the country will be progressively secured and cleared of Iraqi forces of all types over the coming days and weeks."

This, he said, would allow further humanitarian relief to flow and the liberation of the Iraqi people to begin, "setting the stage for the decisive defeat of a regime that harbours weapons of mass destruction."

Cosgrove, a popular and trusted figure in Australia after leading its successful military intervention in East Timor in 1999, said the media had helped obscure what he called "the bigger picture".

While correspondents had given the public an unprecedented view of the war, their inevitable focus had been on detail -- "a skirmish here and a battle there".

"My view is that the bigger picture is one of dramatic success and a plan on time in achieving the goals it set for itself," he said.

He also admitted to being disappointed but not surprised that weapons of mass destruction had not been found so far, but said this meant only that further work had to be done to find them.

But he said the possibility of rapid success had never been the basis of the plan to defeat Iraq.

"War is full of surprises, this conflict has had a few already and there are probably more ahead -- that is just the nature of a battle.

Cosgrove said there had been a few minor surprises such as the use of human shields and the fact that Iraqi troops had been wearing civilian clothes, mingling with civilians and firing on coalition forces.

"That is a terrorist act under any definition," he said.

"I think even people inured to 12 years of close study of Saddam Hussein and years of longer range experience of his actions...could not understand how he would brutalise his own population in trying to cling to a presidential seat in a presidential palace somewhere in Baghdad or Tikrit."

He said the war had so far been a great success for a force that was relatively small compared to the 1991 Gulf war coalition, and it had achieved its successes with a concern to avoid civilian casualties and damage that was unique in war.

The southern oilfields were secure, there had been no ballistic missile attacks on Israel, the situation in northern Iraq was much more stable than had been feared and the more pessimistic predictions had not eventuated.

SPACE.WIRE