A massive convoy of US Marines swept down the main road to Baghdad today amid reports that Iraq’s Republican Guard was moving reinforcements south for a showdown.

Some of Iraq’s best conventional forces have been routed by Allied bombing and ground fighting, but more lie between the advancing American troops and Baghdad, US military officials warned today.

British forces were waiting for the order today to enter Basra in support of an apparent uprising by Iraqi civilians against Saddam Hussein’s militias.

US INTELLIGENCE suspects that ground troops are increasingly likely to face chemical weapons as they approach Baghdad, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last night.