Kurdish forces were seen in small numbers around mid-morning and seemed to be in control, but they later disappeared and there was no sign of the US special forces a spokeswoman for the military's Central Command said had also entered the city.

A few Kurdish fighters were seen on bridges and some roads elsewhere in the city, but the yellow flag of their Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which had been hoisted on the city hall, had disappeared and people were seen spreading out the Iraqi flag instead.

"Mosul and Kirkuk have fallen," Major Rumi Nielson-Green told AFP at the Central Command base in Qatar, referring also to the other principal northern Iraqi city, which was taken over by Kurdish and US forces Thursday.

"Coalition forces are inside the cities," she said, adding "they are mostly special operations forces."

Dozens of residents gathered outside the city hall, and the looting already familiar in other places abandoned by Saddam Hussein's regime began.

But the atmosphere was much more subdued than on Thursday in Kirkuk, which saw widespread scenes of jubilation.

Witnesses said the peshmergas had entered the city overnight, after Iraqi forces withdrew late Thursday, abandoning their weapons.

"The electricity was cut off at 10:00 pm (1800 GMT), they changed into civilian clothes," said one resident, Fariz Abbas. "The officers left for surrounding villages."

"The Iraqi soldiers have abandoned their weapons and gone home," added another witness, Hussein Said.

KDP spokesman Hoshyar Zebari told AFP commanders of the Iraqi army in Mosul formally surrendered to US forces on Friday, while in Qatar US Brigadier Vincent Brooks spoke of a "signed ceasefire agreement" from the Iraqi 5th Corps commander.

In several districts of the city people were seen taking furniture and anything else they could carry from official buildings, some of which were later seen burning.

But other administrative centres, including the intelligence headquarters, were already destroyed, apparently by US-British coalition bombing.

One young man, Safah Salam, accused the peshmergas of looting. "Is that ensuring security, is that helping to stabilise the city?" he demanded.

Mosul is strategically important because of its airport and an Iraqi missile-launching base. It had been the target of US air raids since the war in Iraq began on March 20.

The fall of Kirkuk alarmed Turkey, which fears Kurdish control of the oil-rich city would fan desires for independence that would spread to its own restive Kurdish minority.

However, General "Mam" Rostam, a commander of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the other main Kurdish faction governing Iraqi Kurdistan, said Friday 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.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said in Ankara later Friday that Kurdish fighters had started to move out of Kirkuk.

CNN reported that thousands of unarmed Iraqi soldiers had already abandoned positions in northern Iraq and were walking south, away from Kirkuk and Mosul, and Brooks said that the 5th Corps was now out of the war and would be expected to go home.

SPACE.WIRE