"We had a good day today, however, it is not over ... there will be additional fights," Rumsfeld told reporters on Capitol Hill, where he was briefing US lawmakers on the day's developments in Iraq.

"While it is wonderful to see the faces of the Iraqi people and to feel the joy that they have to be free of that vicious regime, nonetheless (coalition forces) continue to be in danger until the entire mission is completed," he said.

"There is a lot of fighting that's left," Rumsfeld said.

"The task is to see that that regime is not there. There is a good portion of the country where that has been achieved, but there's a good portion of the country where that has not been achieved."

Duncan Hunter, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said after the briefing that "a lot has been accomplished; there's a lot to do."

US-led forces were not yet in control of the Iraqi capital, Rumsfeld said.

"Obviously, we do not control Baghdad," he said, saying that control of the city was in transition.

He then added quickly "but neither does the regime -- you can be sure of that."

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers said "scraps of intelligence" suggest that members of Saddam's inner circle -- including extended family members -- have fled into Syria.

Rumsfeld again claimed Syria served throughout the war as a conduit for military equipment to Iraqi forces.

He rejected charges by some Iraqi dissident leaders that Washington has shown favoritism to Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi in preparing for Iraq's postwar transition.

"There are hundreds of people that we've assisted to get into the country," said Rumsfeld after a briefing given to members of the House of Representatives.

"There are about six different elements that are Iraqi" who have received "lethal and non-lethal" US assistance, Rumsfeld said.

"We've been assisting a whole lot of people," he said.

Chalabi is backed by the US Defense Department and has been pressing for a prominent place in any post-war government in Iraq.

But the wealthy Chalabi, one of a host of Iraqi opposition figures, is opposed by the State Department and other parts of the US administration.

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