Air Force Major General Victor Renuart said the troops, from positions south of the city, marched north to the center and then headed west in the direction of Saddam International Airport, which, he added, was in the hands of US forces.

Addressing a press briefing here at the forward command base directing the war on Iraq, Renuart sought to clarify reports that the troops might have taken up positions inside Baghdad.

While he steadfastly refused to say where units of the US Army's Third Infantry Division had deployed by the end of the day, he left the clear impression they were no longer in the city center.

"This was an operation conducted by two task forces of the Third Infantry Division," he told reporters.

"They in fact had been south of the city and conducted a raid through the city, proceeded north to the Tigris River and then continuing out to the west in the direction of the airport."

At one point, US forces came to narrow bend in the Tigris River as Highway One entered what Renuart described as an area "about as close to the center as I know how to define it".

Asked by a British journalist why his colleagues in central Baghdad had not observed any US troops in the area Saturday, Renuart said: "I'm pretty comfortable that in some parts of downtown London you can't see what's going on in other parts of downtown London".

A US commander in Baghdad earlier reported that around 1,000 Iraqi troops had been killed in the drive into the city and an AFP reporter saw dozens of Iraqi military vehicles burning in the streets.

US officials, who described Iraqi resistance as sporadic but fierce in spots, said dozens of tanks had rumbled into Baghdad a day after US forces seized control of the airport.

Confusion surrounding the nature of the operation emerged when press spokesmen at US Central Command forward headquarters signalled that it was more than simply a patrol and that US troops might hold their positions in the center.

"This wasn't a patrol -- go in and come out," Navy Captain Frank Thorp said here. "This is part of the (US Army's) Fifth Corps moving into the city."

But Renuart suggested that the thrust had a distinctly psychological objective.

"It was very clear to the people of Baghdad that coalition forces were in the city," he said, adding that such an "image" would have a powerful impact on the population.

"The message really is ... to put an exclamation point on the fact that coalition troops are in fact in the vicinity of Baghdad, do in fact have the ability to come into the city at places of their choosing and to demonstrate to the Iraqi leadership they do not have control in a fashion they continue to say they do on their television."

But Renuart acknowledged that "the fight is far from over in Baghdad".

Iraqi authorities dismissed claims that US troops had taken control of the airport and said invading forces had in fact been "crushed".

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf insisted that the elite Republican Guard was "in full control of Saddam International Airport".

"We have defeated them, in fact we have crushed them," he said of coalition troops. "We have pushed them outside the whole area of the airport."

"We will continue concentrating on those mercenaries until we slaughter them," Sahhaf promised. "Yesterday we nailed them down and since dawn we are attacking them and they are surrounded."

In central Baghdad, meanwhile, Iraqis staged a victory march. Convoys of cars, including police cruisers with wailing sirens, navigated the streets as motorists waved Iraqi flags and fired assault rifles, honked and flashed the "V" for victory sign.

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