In a speech read on television on his behalf by Information Minister Mohammad Said al Sahhaf, the Iraqi leader, who had stunned residents Friday with a televised walkabout in Baghdad, said the capital was still theirs to rescue.

Sahhaf told reporters Iraq had won back Baghdad's main airport with a deadly assault on US troops that included suicide attacks, a claim quickly denied by the Americans.

AFP correspondents saw dozens of Iraqi military vehicles burning on the streets after a battle near the road to the main airport, which US Central Command said was "secure" and in coalition hands a day after its capture.

US commanders said 30 tanks penetrated deep into the capital and had come under rifle fire and attack by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). US officers said an American tank commander was shot dead and estimated some 1,000 Iraqi soldiers were killed.

"The enemy has concentrated all its forces against Baghdad, which has weakened its power in other parts of Iraq," Saddam said in the address.

"You must now weaken them (further), deepen their wounds and deprive them of what they have taken of your land, even though it is negligible, in order to reduce their chances and accelerate their defeat."

He added that Iraqis should "increase the number of attacks and go all out at the enemy to destroy them, following the orders in the written plans they have received".

"What has happened in Baghdad up until now is rather less than your Baghdad can put up with and God will protect it, even if it will have to cope with an even heavier burden.

"The enemy is lost (if they) believe they can heal the wounds they have already suffered by trying to attack Bagdad."

Sahhaf insisted victory was near for Iraq.

"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."

He said suicide attacks had been launched on the American forces, part of "not conventional" combat methods he announced Friday.

"We will continue concentrating on those mercenaries until we slaughter them," Sahhaf promised.

"Yesterday we nailed them down and since dawn we have been attacking them and they are surrounded."

US Central Command said the fight for Baghdad was "far from finished".

Coalition combat aircraft began flying all-day patrols over Baghdad to provide close air support for US ground forces probing the capital, said Lieutenant General T. Michael Moseley, commander of the US-led air campaign.

There was little sign inside the city of the US assault.

On the west bank of the Tigris river where most government buildings are based, quiet had returned after a tense morning, enforced by patrolling soldiers and other heavily armed fighters.

In central Baghdad, 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.

At the al-Yarmuk hospital near the scene of the fighting, ambulances and civilian minibuses have been continuously bringing in wounded soldiers since the US onslaught on the airport began late Thursday.

Artillery fire was heard several hours after the engagement on the edge of the Dora and Yarmuk neighborhoods in southwest Baghdad, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the center.

"The fighting lasted from five to eight o'clock this morning (0100 GMT to ," said Kamal, an electrician from the Yarmuk district.

"It was hell. We were on a battlefield. It was on the airport road about 10 kilometers from the airport.

"The firepower was incredible. There was no let-up in the firing for three hours. Machine gun fire, light artillery and RPGs."

Iraqi army trucks, armored personnel carriers as well as jeeps mounted with anti-aircraft gunners were abandoned, some burning and others smoking on the main road leading to the Dora electricity station and nearby side streets.

Baghdad came in for another day of incessant bombing, as coalition warplanes struck the city center and southern outskirts and loud explosions shook downtown high-rises.

Two cluster bombs dropped on the Iraqi capital overnight left eight people wounded, residents told AFP.

Most in the city were nevertheless in the dark about US forces' advances, as many were out of power and state television did not mention the airport takeover.

Instead, state TV continually replayed footage of Saddam walking carefree through the streets of Baghdad, accepting kisses from adoring crowds and scooping up babies for a peck on the cheek.

SPACE.WIRE