"It's a quiet day on the military front, we continue consolidating," said Major Rumi Nielson-Green.

Monday's fall of Saddam's fiefdom of Tikrit, where US troops encountered virtually no resistance, effectively marked the end of any major combat in Iraq.

"What we're seing is that the Iraqi military is no longer an effective fighting force," Captain Frank Thorp told AFP, pointing out however that there were still pockets of resistance and "foreign fighters out there."

The United States has already begun pulling back some of the 300,000 troops it deployed in the region, and two aircraft carriers were due to head home in the coming days.

"We are moving closer to stabilization operations," said Nielson-Green, adding that this was a crucial step toward "the next process" where Iraqis will shape the post-Saddam future of their country."

"Nasiriyah is part of that process," she said in reference to Tuesday's meeting of opposition leaders convened by Washington in southern Iraq.

US-led troops in Iraq now focused on searching for arms caches, weapons of mass destruction and any intelligence pointing to their location.

"There are pockets of things happening, we are clearing new areas, finding caches of weapons -- nothing significant from a strategic perspective," Nielson-Green said.

Coalition forces also got to work on rebuilding Iraq's shattered infrastructure and trying to restore order after days of chaos and looting in several cities.

But Nielson-Green warned that even with Saddam Hussein's regime ousted and the war all but over, "there is still danger."

"There are still people out there who wish to do us harm," she said.

"If you're one of the soldiers or Marines who're out there it's not over as far as you're concerned," said Thorp.

"It will be over when the people of Iraq feel that the grip of fear and torture has been loosened," he said.

The latest casualties were apparently not the result of combat.

Centcom announced Tuesday that three US soldiers died and three more were injured in apparent accidental blasts.

Two died when a grenade exploded as they worked on a vehicle south of Baghdad in an incident which "was not a result of hostile fire," Centcom said, and another Fifth Corps soldier was killed and one more wounded Monday morning in "an apparent accidental weapons discharge incident" close to Baghdad International Airport.

Meanwhile, the US Fourth Infantry Division (4ID) is preparing for a stabilisation and security role when it deploys in northern Iraq in the coming days, Brigadier General Ray Odierno said.

"I'm always happy when we don't have to go into combat ... (but) the war has not ended yet," the 4ID's senior commander said at Camp Udari in Kuwait.

Odierno said "significant pockets of resistance" remained in Iraq and his task force of some 33,000 soldiers would have to deal with combat situations as well as securing humanitarian aid and social services.

The 4ID, the US Army's most modern digital division, was originally scheduled to enter Iraq from the north but Turkey refused it permission.

Lead elements crossed into southern Iraq from Kuwait in recent days, but most of the division's tanks and fighting vehicles are still being marshalled in the Kuwaiti desert.

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