"The Iraqi military appears to be over as an organised fighting force," Captain Frank Thorp told reporters at US Central Command forward headquarters here.

"But it is premature to say the war is over as long as there continues to be resistance," he added in response to questions about the ongoing battle for Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit.

Thorp said fighting in Tikrit, Saddam's last stronghold, was "ongoing," and added US troops there were facing pockets of resistance.

"When there's fighting it's fierce, but it's not organised," he said. US forces had found a variety of abandoned Iraqi military equipment there, he added.

US armoured vehicles on Monday controlled the centre of the key northern city.

A British army spokesman told AFP earlier Monday that once Tikrit falls to US forces the war in Iraq will likely have finished.

SPACE.WIRE