But he cautioned that the city had "not yet" fallen.

"Yesterday people in Mosul, including the commanders of the 5th Corps (of the Iraqi army), the governor and the heads of important families sent a delegation to (KDP leader) Massoud Barzani to ask him to use his good offices with the Americans for a peaceful surrender of the city without any more fighting," said KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari.

"We sent a message to the Americans in the afternoon: Mosul wants to surrender, we have to reassure them," he said.

"There were two results. First, since the war is continuing, the American officers want a formal surrender. Second, we have reassured the people of Mosul that we will help them with their surrender, to help them protect their goods, and (assure) their security."

Mosul, with its strategic importance due to its airport and an Iraqi missile-launching base, has been the target of US air raids since the war in Iraq began on March 20.

US and Kurdish irregular forces, known as peshmergas, began their move into the city on Thursday, hours after they took the key oil city of Kirkuk following the departure of troops loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

However, General "Mam" Rostam, a commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the other main Kurdish faction governing Iraqi Kurdistan, said Friday that peshmergas had been ordered to leave the city once US forces arrive later in the day or on Saturday in a bid to placate Turkey.

Ankara has repeatedly threatened to intervene militarily in northern Iraq if Kurdish forces seized Kirkuk or Mosul, which control some of Iraq's largest oilfields.

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