Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld vowed there would be a final victory for the US-led forces in Iraq and which are now at the gates of Baghdad.

But Rumsfeld strongly warned other nations against encouraging Saddam to get out of the coalition onslaught by seeking a deal with Washington.

"There's no question but that some governments are discussing from time to time some sort of a -- cutting a deal," Rumsfeld told a press briefing.

"And the inevitable effect of it, let there be no doubt, is to give hope and comfort to the Saddam Hussein regime," added the defense secretary, "hope that one more time maybe he'll survive, one more time maybe he'll be there for another decade or so, for another 17 or 18 UN resolutions."

Rumsfeld, who did not name the countries who were the target of his warning, emphatically added: "There's not a chance that there's going to be a deal. It doesn't matter who proposes it, there will not be one."

General Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that efforts to make a deal would only prolong the war and increase the likelihood of civilian casualties.

Rumsfeld hailed the US advance through Iraq, saying that US forces have "taken several outlying areas and are closer to the center of the Iraqi capital than many American commuters are from their downtown offices."

But he also warned of "difficult days" ahead before the war could be finished.

And the US president meanwhile went to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, a base of 43,000 marines, with about 17,500 deployed overseas, many in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush and his wife Laura comforted about 50 relatives of the dozen or so Marines from Camp Lejeune who have been killed in the campaign.

"No one who falls will be forgotten by this grateful nation. We honor their service to America. And we pray their families will receive God's comfort and God's grace," Bush said in a speech to 20,000 marines and their families at the camp.

But he told the cheering crowd: "What we have begun, we will finish."

"The course is set. We're on the advance. Our destination is Baghdad, and we will accept nothing less than complete and final victory," said Bush.

Bush again emphasized that the aim of the war was to free the Iraqi people from "the dictator" -- barely mentioning Saddam's name at all.

And new details emerged of US plans for post-war Iraq gathering pace.

Senior State Department officials said the United States plans to set up a new, temporary embassy at a Baghdad hotel it plans to lease and renovate.

Secretary of State Colin Powell headed from Brussels where he insisted that the US-led coalition should take the lead after the war, despite European and Russian calls for the United Nations to play a "central" role.

"I think the coalition has to play the leading role in determining the way forward," Powell told a press conference after a meeting with EU and NATO counterparts in Brussels.

NATO and EU leaders were also keen to highlight the air of reconciliation at the extraordinary meeting.

Powell also met Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov who stressed Moscow's view that the United Nations must have an important role in Iraq.

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