"As much as the president is pleased to see the progress of the military campaign, and the Iraqi people finding freedom where they are finding it, he remains very cautious because he knows that there is grave danger that could still lie ahead," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

As US Marines and Iraqis joined forces to topple a statue of Saddam in downtown Baghdad, Vice President Dick Cheney also cited "evidence of the collapse of any central regime authority" but warned "hard fighting" may yet lie ahead.

Fleischer said as gunfire could be heard on broadcasts from Baghdad: "We are still in the midst of a shooting war, and men and women are still in harm's way. The war is not over. There remain a lot of dangers ahead."

Cheney warned in a speech in New Orleans, Louisiana, that forces loyal to Saddam still controlled key towns in northern Iraq.

Also Wednesday, Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Bush's key ally in the war, told the House of Commons that it was still "extremely difficult" to say what remains of Saddam's regime, let alone know who would surrender to US-led forces in its name.

"There are still some very difficult things to do, and as we speak there is still intense resistance ... among those parts of Saddam's regime that want to cling on to power," he said. "So it's not over yet."

The prime minister was to speak to Bush by telephone later Wednesday.

Meanwhile a senior State Department official said the United States was planning to convene a meeting of Iraqi exiles and local leaders as early as next week in Iraq as a first step in organizing an interim indigenous government for the country.

"We want to talk to people from exile communities, locals on the ground, and we want them to talk to each other to get their ideas on the next steps toward the IIA," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to the Iraqi Interim Authority.

A second official said the meeting could be held as early as next Tuesday but played down speculation that it would take place in the city of Nasiriyah, where the controversial leader of one Iraqi exile group is now based.

The official said Nasiriyah would almost certainly not be the venue, due to concerns that the leader, Ahmad Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress, might use the opportunity to try to seize complete control of the IIA.

"The people who are talking about Nasiriyah are people who see this as a coronation for Chalabi, and that is definitely not what this is going to be," the official said.

Chalabi, who now commands the Free Iraqi Forces, is not trusted by both the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency but has supporters in the Pentagon, which arranged his transportation to Nasiriyah and has been championing his cause.

Fleischer said that other cities in Iraq remain under the control of Saddam's regime and that US-led forces still face pockets of tough resistance, adding: "This remains a time of utmost caution."

The subdued tone of the White House stood in stark contrast to the jubilation shown on television as Iraqis assailed statues and portraits of Saddam and other symbols of his iron-fisted rule three weeks to the day after Bush gave US-led forces the order to go to war.

Asked whether Saddam escaped a US bombing raid on a Baghdad restaurant where he was thought to be on Monday, Fleischer said that "we still don't know his fate" but cautioned neighboring nations against offering him refuge.

Last week, Fleischer had said that Bush's "definition of victory" was the point at which the regime is disarmed and its hold on power is broken "so the Iraqi people can be free and liberated."

US forces met little resistance as they took over swathes of Baghdad, with looting erupting as it became clear that Saddam's 24-year stranglehold on the Iraqi people was disintegrating.

To do away with a giant statue of Saddam in Al-Fardus (Paradise) Square, US soldiers slung a thick rope noose around the Iraqi leader's neck, and briefly draped the Stars and Stripes over his head.

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