British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said there were "strong indications" that Majid, who is President Saddam's cousin, was killed in a coalition raid on the southern city of Basra, which was overrun by thousands of British troops overnight.

"We have some strong indications that he was killed in the raid conducted Friday night but I can't yet absolutely confirm the fact that he is dead. But that would be certainly my best judgement in the situation," Hoon told a London press conference.

If his death is confirmed, Majid would be the most senior member of the Iraqi government known to be killed since the launch of the US-led war March 20 aimed at toppling Saddam's regime.

But at the US Central Command's forward planning base here, a senior US commander stressed there was no hard evidence yet Majid was dead.

"I don't have any confirmed reports on the condition of the man referred to as Chemical Ali," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told reporters.

Central Command said Saturday that two coalition aircraft had attacked Majid's residence with "laser-guided munitions." One of Majid's bodyguards was confirmed dead shortly afterward, an official at the base here said Sunday.

Majid, a former interior minister, has long been Saddam's right-hand man, dispatched to troublespots to weed out any opposition.

Before the start of the war, he was named governor of Iraq's southern province with the goal of defending the region and ensuring that the mass uprising called for by the United States and Britain would not materialize.

Majid had experience in Basra, having crushed a Shiite Muslim-led uprising in southern Iraq that erupted, with US encouragement but little assistance, in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War.

Iraqi opposition figures say tens of thousands died in the crackdown.

He is most notorious for his ruthless suppression of a Kurdish revolt at the end of Iraq's 1980-1988 war with Iran.

Amid fears of a Kurdish alliance with Tehran, Iraqi jets bombed the agricultural town of Halabja near the Iranian border to flush out fighters from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

The guerrillas retreated to the surrounding hills, leaving behind women and children, and on March 16, 1988, jets swooped over the town and for five hours sprayed mustard gas and nerve agents, including Sarin.

Some 5,000 people were killed, three-quarters of them women and children. Dozens of Kurds lay lifeless in front of their homes, many with blood pouring out of their noses as they tried in vain to flee the attacks.

It is believed to have been the biggest single gas attack every carried out against civilians.

People in the area of the village continue to die of cancer and suffer from asthma, sterility and miscarriages, according to Kurdish doctors.

New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a report earlier this year, called for the arrest and prosecution of Majid, saying he was responsible for the deaths or "disappearances" of around 100,000 non-combatant Kurds when he put down their revolt.

"Majid is Saddam Hussein's hatchet man. He has been involved in some of Iraq's worst crimes -- including genocide and crimes against humanity," said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch's executive director.

"Chemical Ali" was also accused of brutalities when he served as Iraq's military governor during the seven-month occupation of Kuwait that was ended by the US-led 1991 conflict.

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