Citing unnamed government officials, the newspaper said that some analysts believe multiple eyewitness accounts suggesting the Iraqi dictator is dead.

The bombs reduced a residential block in Baghdad's Mansur neighborhood to rubble.

One of the officials described the CIA as being "in a state of euphoria," the report said.

"They say there is no doubt he is dead," the paper quoted a US military official as saying.

But an intelligence official cautioned Tuesday that Washington has not made a final determination on whether Saddam was killed in the strike, The Times reported.

The official said there was no doubt senior Baath Party and Iraqi intelligence officials had been killed, but there was no way of knowing at this time who exactly was among those dead, according to the report.

It took the United States only 45 minutes to hit the target from the moment the intelligence was received, according to defense officials.

The Times said conclusive evidence about the identities of those killed could come in the form of DNA from the bomb site, or monitored communications.

SPACE.WIRE