Speaking to BBC radio from Qatar on day 20 of the war, Major General Peter Wall could not confirm whether repeated US attempts to bomb presidential bunkers have killed either Saddam or his two sons.

"Attempts have been made on more than one occasion to target Saddam Hussein directly on the basis of intelligence that we've received from select sources," Wall told the Today program.

"We don't know the precise outcome," he said, adding: "There is always the possibility that they were able to organise some final act of defiance -- and we've got to keep on our guard against that."

Though he refused to say the war has been won, Wall said "the outcome is inevitable" and that Saddam's regime was liable to fall "in the days and weeks ahead."

"Progress thus far has been extremely encouraging," he said.

Asked if US forces were on the point of taking the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Wall said: "It's too early to say."

"We have seen the extremities of the city being encircled and it remains to be seen where the enemy will coalesce," he said.

"It's likely to be in concentrated areas," he added. "It will be a question of assessing the location and intensity of resistance at those strong points (which) may be significantly well defended."

On the situation in Basra, where British forces are concentrated, Wall said British troops would turn a blind eye on looters in the key southern city for the time being.

"It's very difficult at this stage to contain that sort of activity," he said. "It's only 24 hours since the lid came off the regime control of Basra, and we hope things will settle down in the next few days.

"It's probably the first opportunity some of these people have had for free expression in many, many years," he added. "In comparison with what's been going on thus far this is not of huge significance."

He added: "Our forces, in proportion to the population, are not large and there could be renegade elements that are in a position to make life difficult for us and we've yet to find that out."

SPACE.WIRE