The speed and violence American troops showed to strike a possibly mortal blow to the regime in Baghdad will reverberate around Iraq as another sign that the end of Saddam's reign is nigh.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf popped up after the lightning raid to assure reporters that the Americans had been repulsed in the capital.

But the apparent ease with which US forces, enjoying total control of the skies, can blast their way through Iraq's defences from their base at the international airport augurs ill for the regime's future.

The US army's 3rd Infantry Division said troops had "secured the main presidential palace" and another palace in the city centre as well as a third near the airport.

A reporter embedded with British Royal Marines said they had captured Saddam's palace in Iraq's second city Basra at dawn, with no resistance after overnight aerial bombing.

The ostentation of the massive buildings and gardens overlooking the Shatta al-Arab waterway -- not to mention a swimming pool -- stunned the Marines after pushing through scenes of appalling poverty and destruction.

The Iraqi regime liked to call the compounds the "palaces of the people" and saw them as important symbols of sovereignty and dignity.

But few people other than the ruling Baath Party faithful ever got past the heavily fortified walls, patrolled 24 hours a day.

The Iraqi opposition likened the grand constructions to a symbol of repression.

Long considered locations of prime interest by UN weapons inspectors, the compounds were high on the list of the regime's suspected hiding places for weapons of mass destruction.

But despite several incursions into the fortress-like compounds, and expressions of outrage from the government, inspectors repeatedly came up empty-handed.

UN inspectors first attempted to gain access in 1997, but Baghdad refused, and the United States threatened to attack Iraq. Secretary General Kofi Annan went to the country in February 1998 to broker a deal to avoid military action.

The agreement allowed for a special one-time inspection, before the inspectors fled on the eve of US and British air strikes in late 1998.

A group of UN experts, senior diplomats and representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency failed to find evidence of weapons of mass destruction, but noted signs there had been significant movements.

Iraq on September 16 accepted a return of the weapons inspectors after the four-year hiatus and in a futile bid to avoid war allowed unfettered access everywhere.

The ornate palaces, some boasting domes, cover a total 31.5 square kilometres (11.8 square miles), one-third of which is taken up by artificial lakes.

They contain about 1,000 buildings, including luxury mansions, guest villas, offices, warehouses and garages, according to the UN team that visited in 1998.

Three are in Baghdad, including the 2.5 square kilometre (one-square-mile) Republican Palace, which covers a massive bunker, on the west bank of the Tigris.

Built in 1982, it houses Saddam's main office as well as offices of the Special Security Forces, which protect the ruling elite, and the Republican Guard, a well-trained and loyal military force.

US warplanes took a special interest in the compound, repeatedly pounding it after the war began on March 20.

The bunker was designed to withstand an explosion with the power of the atom bomb that fell on Hiroshima in 1945 and includes a command centre.

Also in the capital are the 17.8-square-kilometre (6.7-square-mile) Radwaniya presidential compound located just west of the centre near the airport, and the Sojud guest palace, both also in American hands now, according to the US army.

Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, about 90 kilometers (55 miles) north of Baghdad, also boasts a major palace covering four square kilometressquare miles) and is dotted with guard towers.

Another is in Mosul, the main city in the north, one lies in Thar Thar, overlooking a lake some 100 kilometres (60 miles) northwest of the capital Baghdad, and the final one a short distance away at Jabal Makhul, near Samarra.

SPACE.WIRE