"Now that the war has begun, it will be seen through the end," said Blair in an address beamed down on Iraq from a specially-equipped US C-130 Hercules aircraft broadcasting on the channel used by Iraqi state television.

"We will work with you to build the peaceful, prosperous Iraq that you want, and you deserve," he said.

"This Iraq will not be run by Britain, or by the United States, or by the United Nations. It will be run by you -- the people of Iraq."

Blair's statement, on what the US-led coalition is calling Towards Freedom television, was followed by a similar address by US President George W. Bush, three weeks to the day after the Iraq war began.

Officials said they were video-taped at Hillsborough Castle, outside Belfast, where Bush and Blair held a war summit Monday and Tuesday unaware that downtown Baghdad would fall to US marines on Wednesday.

Both addresses were subtitled in Arabic.

With Saddam's whereabouts unknown, and his loyalists still putting up resistance in many parts of Iraq, Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Thursday: "We have to guard against being over-optimistic."

But on the diplomatic front, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw -- just back from Paris and Madrid -- moved quickly, telling the House of Commons that he would be going to a number of Gulf states next week.

Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien, his deputy for Middle East affairs, would meanwhile go to Syria and Iran, despite concern in Washington and London that Damascus is aiding Saddam loyalists.

"We look to Syria to end any and all assistance to the Iraqi regime and to cooperate fully with the people of Iraq and with the coalition forces," Straw told MPs.

Well before the Iraq war began on March 20, Blair and Straw had begun reaching out to Syria and to Iran, engaging them in diplomatic dialogue despite their pariah status with the Bush administration.

Straw did not specify when he and O'Brien would be making their trips. Nor did the foreign secretary say which Gulf states he intended to visit.

"Iraq's neighbors have important interests at stake," Straw told lawmakers on day 22 of the war to overthrow Saddam, and one day after US marines occupied downtown Baghdad.

"They, like us, want to see a stable and prosperous Iraq living in peace in the region," he said.

In his address to the Iraqi people, Blair portrayed Saddam as a ruthless tyrant, and he took pains to insist that Iraq would not be subject to long-term foreign occupation.

"I am glad to be able to speak to you today, and to tell you that Saddam Hussein's regime is collapsing; that the years of brutality, oppression and fear are coming to an end; that a new and better future beckons for the people of Iraq," Blair said.

"Our aim is to help alleviate immediate humanitarian suffering, and to move as soon as possible to an interim authority run by Iraqis," Blair said.

"This will pave the way for a truly representative Iraqi government, which represents human rights and the rule of law and spends Iraq's wealth not on palaces and WMD (weapons of mass destruction), but on you and the services you need," he said.

Blair added: "The money from Iraqi oil will be yours; to be used to build prosperity for you and your families."

SPACE.WIRE