Bush was to leave Washington before dawn Monday to meet his main Iraq war ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Northern Ireland.

Three bomb alerts were issued in Belfast on Monday, police there said. The first alert, at Belfast's international airport, where Bush's plane was to arrive at around 1700 GMT, was lifted after a search of the site.

Two other alerts, one at Belfast's domestic City Airport, the other at a main route between the international airport and the town, were still in force.

Rice, meanwhile, was at the Kremlin for talks with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and possibly, according to US officials, President Vladimir Putin.

Rice met earlier Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, one day after five Russian diplomats were wounded when a convoy evacuating them from Baghdad came under fire, possibly from US troops, Interfax reported.

Talks between Ivanov and Rice, who was accompanied by US ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow, were to focus on US-Russian relations, Interfax added.

A US official in Washington, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said Sunday that Rice would also discuss the shooting incident with Putin before travelling on to meet up with Bush in Northern Ireland on Monday or Tuesday. The US-British summit will be the third in three weeks for Bush and Blair, who embarked on the Iraq war without the United Nations' explicit approval and in defiance of opposition from France, Russia and Germany.

Thousands of anti-war protesters were expected to demonstrate later Monday at Hillsborough Castle, the site south of Belfast where the US and British leaders were to meet.

The military successes over the weekend and Monday made it certain that rebuilding Iraq after the fall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would be a major theme for the summit.

Bush and Blair differ over postwar Iraq, with Blair calling for the United Nations to have a central role.

The prime minister has said Britain would seek fresh UN Security Council resolutions to guarantee Iraq's territorial integrity, ensure humanitarian aid quickly reached civilians and approve a post-war administration.

Conscious of international opposition to the Iraq war, Blair has also pushed the US leader recently to make a greater commitment to the Middle East peace process.

France, Germany and Russia have also demanded that the United Nations to be responsible for running Iraq when the fighting finishes, but Rice has swept aside such calls.

"Having given life and blood to liberate Iraq," it was natural that the United States and Britain should take the lead in the country when the war is finished, she said Friday.

The United States plans to let a military administration under its main war commander, General Tommy Franks, run Iraq until an interim Iraqi administration can take over. But there have been divisions in Washington over the plans.

US Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Sunday the US military may have to run Iraq for more than six months after the war has finished before it hands over to an Iraqi authority.

Bush and Blair will hold a working dinner in Belfast Monday, and a press conference at 1045 GMT Tuesday, before taking part in a trilateral meeting on Northern Ireland with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, the White House said.

The UN Security Council was also due to meet Monday at 1500 GMT to discuss Iraq.

US forces plunged into the heart of Baghdad on Monday, targeting three palaces and other totems of President Saddam Hussein's regime, and coalition aircraft intensified flights over Baghdad.

Massive explosions roared across the sky as battling troops exchanged mortar and rocket-propelled grenades. Rocket fire was heard downtown for the first time since the war began on March 20.

Hundreds of British soldiers moved into the centre of Basra on foot meanwhile, seizing control of the main southern city's university from Iraqi militiamen, an AFP correspondent reported.

British troops are in Basra "to stay", British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Monday in London.

Hoon said Britain has "strong indications" that "Chemical Ali", a cousin of Saddam Hussein who was blamed for a gas attack on Kurds in 1988, was killed in an allied raid. He could not confirm his death.

In an impromptu press conference Iraqi Information Minister Mohammad Said al-Sahhaf told reporters US forces had been repulsed.

"Don't believe these invaders and these liars. There are none of their troops in Baghdad," he said.

SPACE.WIRE