As the United States said its troops were within 50 kilometers (30 miles) of his capital, state television broadcast a series of statements by Saddam, who stressed he had not yet unleashed his full force and warned Kurds fighting in the north that he remained in charge.

The US-led coalition launched at least two air strikes against Saddam's Republican Palace on Wednesday, the third straight day the sprawling complex on the Tigris river was attacked.

A plume of smoke rose from the compound. US Central Command said coalition forces had targeted the presidential bunker and residence along with the New Presidential Palace in the Al-Khark section west of the Tigris.

US and British warplanes have been pounding positions around the capital for days hoping to weaken Iraq's most elite units, particularly the 60,000-strong Republican Guard.

The Pentagon said Wednesday it no longer considered the Republican Guard's Medina and Baghdad divisions to be "credible forces."

Earlier at US Central Command base in Qatar, Brigadier General Vincent Brooks announced that the Baghdad division "has been destroyed."

"We will approach Baghdad. The dagger is clearly pointed at the heart of the regime and will remain pointed at it until the regime is gone," Brooks said.

But Iraq has repeatedly warned that the decisive battle would be in Baghdad, where it hopes to engage US-led forces in bloody street-to-street fighting.

An Iraqi military spokesman said the claimed destruction of the Baghdad division had "no foundation."

"To the contrary, the Baghdad division maintains its cohesion and has a morale of steel. It has not suffered any losses and is ready to confront the enemy and destroy it," the spokesman told AFP.

The division's commander was quoted on state television saying 17 soldiers had been killed and 35 wounded.

"The command is intact and we are ready to confront the enemy wherever he may be," said the general, whose name was not given.

A Central Command spokesman said earlier that US troops were also fighting the Republican Guard's Nebuchadnezzar division and striking the Adnan division to the north in air attacks.

In the aerial blitz on the capital, Iraq said 10 more people died and nearly 90 were injured Tuesday. Bombing also levelled a Red Crescent maternity clinic Wednesday, killing one person and wounding a dozen others, witnesses said.

Dozens of other deaths had been reported Tuesday around Hilla, south of Baghdad, with grisly images broadcast repeatedly to an Arab world already deeply hostile to the war.

As air strikes resumed just before midnight (2100 GMT), Iraqi state television went black for half an hour.

The television has been regularly targetted in airstrikes by the United States, which believes its repeated broadcasts of a confident regime crushing the invaders have been the key to reinforcing Saddam's grip on power.

Just hours before the television went out, it showed footage of a smiling and relaxed Saddam in military attire chairing a meeting.

They were the first images broadcast of the Iraqi leader in three days. Saddam's non-appearance during an address Tuesday calling for holy war, which was read on his behalf by the information minister, had raised new speculation in Washington and London about whether Saddam had survived the thousands of missiles and bombs directed at the most sensitive points of his rule.

In a message delivered in Saddam's name Wednesday, a broadcaster said the regime had committed only "a third" of its armed forces to the war for its existence.

"Many thousands of soldiers are defending the homeland ... and they will not allow them (coalition forces) to go into Baghdad without defeating and repelling them," said a separate message from Saddam read later.

As Kurdish guerrillas said they had advanced on positions abandoned by Iraqi troops in the north, in a letter read by a television anchor Saddam warned that the Kurds' "flirting" with US forces "has entered a dangerous phase now."

"I advise you not to rush toward anything that you will regret, as you know that this leadership and the state leading the confrontation against the invaders are staying," Saddam told Jalal Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The letter was also sent to Massoud Mustapha Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The two pro-US Kurdish groups have effectively run a separate state in northern Iraq since the 1991 Gulf war, with US and British warplanes providing them air cover.

SPACE.WIRE