Sporting the trademark green uniform and black beret of the Baath party, with a slim pair of glasses on his nose, the former foreign minister has stoutly denied every advance by the coalition, even when there is television footage to contradict him.

The one-time English teacher, born in 1940, has been known at his regular briefings to single out journalists who in his eyes have been particularly "non-objective."

On Tuesday, as US tanks secured a key bridge over the Tigris and the hotel where he generally meets the press came under fire, Sahhaf calmly told reporters the situation was under control and that Iraqi commandos were preparing to "crush" the invaders.

"They are going to surrender or be burned in their tanks," Sahhaf said.

A day earlier, after US forces said they had raided Saddam Hussein's main palace and reporters saw tanks parked in front of the sprawling riverbank compound, Sahhaf escorted reporters to a terrace in their hotel facing the Republican Palace, taking advantage of thick smoke that had reduced visibility to zero.

"There are none of their troops in Baghdad," Sahhaf said.

"They pushed forward some troop transporters and tanks, we have surrounded them with our troops," he said.

"I ask you to verify everything they (the Americans and British) say and not just to repeat the lies of these liars."

He was especially upset with the Qatar-based Arabic satellite channel Al-Jazeera for reporting on the US advances, accusing the network of "playing the Americans' game." Al-Jazeera, frequently criticized by Washington, has brought powerful images of wounded Iraqi civilians to millions of Arab viewers.

The US State Department on Monday called Sahhaf's denials of coalition advances "bizarre."

"Clearly in the dying gasps of this regime, there is a lot of hot air coming from the minister of information in terms of bizarre attempts to deny reality on the ground around Baghdad," deputy spokesman Philip Reeker said.

With the United States flying in military planes to the international airport captured Thursday, Sahhaf has repeatedly insisted the facility remains in Iraqi hands and promised to take reporters to see for themselves. So far it has been just a promise.

Sahhaf likes to lace his comments with historical references. On Friday, announcing an imminent "not conventional" attack -- which never came -- to force US forces out of the airport, he recalled the 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu, when French troops were surrounded and forced to surrender by Vietnamese forces, ending French rule in Indochina.

And he is also known for insults, the type of which are rarely heard in diplomatic circles. He has labelled US and British officials as "hooligans," likened them to 1920s gangster Al Capone and described the White House as a "brothel."

His rhetoric has clearly rubbed off domestically. Iraqis interviewed on the street often insist they are sure of victory. They begin their comments, "As Minister Sahhaf says ... "

SPACE.WIRE