"The enemy has concentrated all its forces against Baghdad, which has weakened its power in other parts of Iraq ... you must now weaken them, deepen their wounds and deprive them of what they have taken of your land," the minister quoted Saddam as saying.

The statement contrasts with an earlier one by Sahhaf that coalition troops had been chased out of Baghdad's airport, amid the first US push into the "heart" of the Iraqi capital since the start of the war.

SPACE.WIRE