The president has held an iron grip on power here since 1979 and within two days of the start of the war to topple him on March 20, Saddam was shown on state television vowing victory over the United States and Britain in "the final battle for Iraq."

Twelve years ago, his regime fought another, much broader US-led coalition that ejected his troops from Kuwait in a rout from which they have never fully recovered.

That war came close on the heels of the bitter 1980-1988 conflict with neighbouring Iran, which Saddam's regime says it won despite losing hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

Despite those two episodes, the master of Baghdad has kept his hold on power -- but now US commanders say their troops are little more than a stone's throw from the Iraqi capital. Washington insists the war is not over until Saddam is ousted.

The New York Times reported that Washington -- by repeatedly saying it does not know if Saddam is alive -- is trying to sow doubt in the minds of Iraqi commanders about whether they should keep fighting for someone who could be dead.

"From what our intelligence is picking up, some of the Iraqi commanders themselves have not heard from him," one senior official told the paper.

"And we don't know ourselves. So you could call this psychological warfare, or you could call it exploitation of the biggest mystery out there," the official said.

Meanwhile the regime is unflappable in assuring victory, and Saddam is reported almost daily to be meeting with his inner circle in top secret locations.

State television interrupts its programming to report on the meetings, showing footage of a confident and smiling Saddam dressed in his military uniform. The reports express satisfaction with how the war is going.

Baghdad's official newspapers report the meetings on their front pages.

Saddam, who will be 66 years old on April 28, has addressed the nation twice since the beginning of the war -- the first time several hours after the first air strikes pounded Baghdad.

The United States says those lightning strikes around dawn pounded a location where Saddam and his top chiefs were meeting, after receiving intelligence information about the gathering.

Saddam's third address to the nation Tuesday was read by Information Minister Mohamed Said al-Sahhaf, again raising speculation about his fate after days of US and British air strikes pummelling his Baghdad presidential compound.

But the director general of the information ministry, Uday al-Taie, insisted that Saddam was still alive.

The message of Saddam's well-being is reinforced by television and newspaper reports of almost his every word and deed, among them an address said to be for one of his nieces which was read several times on air.

In that message -- which was also published Thursday in every Baghdad paper -- Saddam pledged to her that the "enemies" would never be able to take the capital.

"Iraqi soldiers will never let them enter Baghdad, but will defeat them and send them back to their countries disillusioned," the message said.

One intelligence official told the New York Times that those messages could be having their intended effect.

"If we underestimated anything, it was Saddam's ability to project the perception that he is still in charge," the official said. "We haven't seen a massive uprising, and we think that is because most of the people are still convinced he is alive."

SPACE.WIRE