Saddam Hussein's luxurious Azimiyah palace -- a collage of metal debris, blackened swimming pools, moats and crystal chandeliers -- provides a glimpse into the lifestyle of a playboy Stalin or a mad billionaire.

"Saddam took pride in how he lived," said Corporal Jose de Soto, one of the marines who captured the eight-building presidential estate in a fierce firefight early Thursday with Arab fundamentalists and Iraqi militiamen.

De Soto was standing outside the ground's main palace -- a colossal art-deco building in the shape of a giant concert piano.

The palace's east side has been pulverised by US air strikes.

A lone mangy white dog lies hides beneath a hole in the Republican Guards barracks here. Marines have nicknamed him Butch and believe he was Saddam's pet.

The lush grounds on the Tigris' riverfront -- some 7,000 metres (yards) east to west -- speaks of the disparity between rich and poor in Saddam's authoritarian state.

*It's amazing. Down south, the people were living in mud huts. Blocks away people are living in poverty," said Captain Erin Locher.

Around the grounds, the 1,000-strong marine unit plunked Saddam's ornate furniture on the grass so they could smoke cigarettes and relax in an atmosphere far removed from the arid desert they have lived in since landing in Kuwait three months ago.

"We've made it our peaceful patio to the war," commented Private Reid Estreicher, gesturing towards the grounds.

The only complaint was that the gold and blue coloured sofas and loveseats were tacky and unworthy of the regal setting.

"It looks like K-Mart," said Lieutenant Richard Wilkerson, in reference to a discount US department store.

Other marines plundered remnants of the palace. A giant bronze bust of Saddam was shoved in the back of a Humvee truck, and a tiger head was mounted on the hood of an armoured vehicle.

On the first day, the troops made a ritual of going to the bathroom in the main palace and using the window curtains as toilet paper.

Plainclothed US special forces, nicknamed GGWs (Guys with Goatees and Weapons), seized a domed palace made of limestone that boasts canopied beds and a giant marble diningroom.

They have littered it with reams of files seized from government sites in Baghdad, but refused to comment on the virtues of their newfound digs.

Rumours have spiraled about the palace's purpose to Saddam. The night of their attack marine officers roused their troops, calling it his main citadel. Since then, marines have speculated it was Saddam's intelligence hub or his primary pleasure pen.

Major Cal Worth, deputy commander of the marine's 1st batallion 5th regiment, discounted the scuttlebut.

"The only significance of the palace was its location and reports Saddam had recently been spotted there," Worth said sitting in the unit's command center, a giant room adorned with a tiled mosaic of pink and green flowers and gilded wooden ceilings.

Down the street, Iraqis looted homes of senior officers in Saddam's Iraq. In one river-front house, a pair hauled out two television sets and three giant china vases. Photos of a general in his black beret and olive uniform littered the floor.

"Thank you Mr. Bush. These things are for my children's future," one looter said as men fired AK-47 assault rifles in the street.

Back at the ranch-sized palace, a 45-year-old Iraqi touring the grounds with marines, possibly on an interview for a job as a translator, spoke with anger. *Saddam gave this palace to his wife. It cost 100 million dollars. His son Uday would make red nights here and bring 1,000 girls," he said.

*Nobody dreamed to come inside the palace."

SPACE.WIRE