"Baghdad is well-defended, and it will be a huge, costly war with us, if they approach Baghdad," Aziz said in an interview in the Iraqi capital with the Italian television RAI UNO.

"They cannot take over Baghdad, it is not an easy city. It is a very large city ... very well-armed and very well-defended, very well-prepared for such an eventuality," he said.

"It would be a fierce fight and we are sure that they are not going to win it," he said.

Aziz said he last met with President Saddam Hussein in a meeting on Wednesday.

"I met with him yesterday... it lasted for several hours. He is in good shape. His moral is great, he is a great leader, and he is in full control of the country," he said.

The country's "political and military leadership are all in good shape, and they are fighting and they are in full control," he said.

Iraqi satellite television aired footage of the Iraqi president in military uniform chairing a meeting attended by several members of the cabinet and officials from the ruling Baath party, although there was no indication as to when the pictures might have been recorded.

Aziz said Arab nationals who have arrived in Iraq as volunteers willing to give their lives for the fight against the US-led forces were "already in the battle, they are dispersed among the Iraqi resistance."

Asked if they were ready to carry out suicide bombings soon, Aziz said: "inshallah (God willing), yes, we hope so."

Aziz also made indirect accusations against countries that opposed the US-led war on Iraq.

"A number of those countries were not pro-Iraqi. They were pro-themselves, when they resisted the American policy regarding Iraq. Actually they did it for themselves, for their own interests," he said.

"They never really supported us," he said.

Asked if there was still a chance for a diplomatic solution, Aziz said: "not at this moment."

SPACE.WIRE