US-LED troops fought pitched battles with Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard within 50 miles of the capital yesterday as coalition warplanes pounded the city and dozens of other Iraqi positions in advance of the battle for Baghdad.

Iraq’s foreign minister today confidently predicted his country’s forces would defeat the Allies and said only surrender would save coalition troops from the “holocaust” the Iraqi people are preparing for them.

PRISONERS OF WAR will be treated in accordance with “the teachings of Islam”, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said yesterday.

In an edgy prelude to war, Saddam Hussein has mocked a US ultimatum to surrender power, and Washington's claim of public support from 30 nations for its international coalition supporting Iraq’s disarmament.

Iraq is braced for war as if it were “happening in an hour," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said tonight.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri today dismissed Britain’s compromise UN proposal, calling it “an attempt to beautify a rejected aggressive project.”

Iraq has rejected US claims of ties to a terror group believed to be linked to al-Qaida, and has offered to give Washington a suspect in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing.

Top UN arms inspectors said they would not agree to new talks in Baghdad unless Iraq demonstrated more cooperation and met unspecified conditions. One hinted it might be necessary to meet Saddam Hussein to resolve the crisis.

IRAQ yesterday said it was up to Washington and London to avoid a military showdown and accused US Secretary of State Colin Powell of lying when he charged Baghdad with developing banned weapons.

UN arms inspectors fanned out yesterday to eight sites suspected of involvement in the making of banned weapons, as an Iraqi Cabinet minister warned the United States of "the heaviest losses" if it attacks.

Iraq has complained to the United Nations after a US air strike in the south of the country that it claims killed three people and injured 16.

UN WEAPONS inspectors visited a factory that once made parts for now-banned missiles yesterday as Iraq came under renewed criticism for its human rights record.

THE first team of UN inspectors landed in Iraq yesterday to resume the hunt for chemical, biological and/or nuclear arms programmes.

With the world watching, a team of United Nations arms inspectors was leaving for Baghdad today to again take up the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, amid complaints by the Iraqi government that the mission could give America a pretext for war.

THE Iraqi government protested to the UN on Sunday that the small print behind its mission will give the US a pretext to attack.

In a long, stern letter to the United Nations, Iraq’s foreign minister complains that the new Security Council resolution on weapons inspections provides a pretext for the United States to wage war against his country.

Saying it wanted to save the Iraqi people from a new war, Saddam Hussein’s government accepted a tough new United Nations resolution and the return of international weapons inspectors, but called the terms unjust and illegal.

IRAQI President Saddam Hussein yesterday called an emergency session of parliament to consider the UN resolution to disarm, while Arab ministers indicated he was ready to accept the document.

Iraq is expected to accept a UN resolution to disarm, Egypt’s foreign minister said early today.

United Nations

PUSHING ahead on Iraq after weeks of diplomatic wrangling, the United States put its tough new proposal into the hands of the Security Council in preparation for a vote that could come as early as next week.

Accusing British prime minister Tony Blair of lying to justify an attack, Iraq tonight dismissed his dossier that accuses Saddam Hussein of pursuing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

Iraq branded as baseless Tony Blair’s dossier designed to convince war-wary British MPs that Saddam Hussein is pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration was today sending Congress a resolution seeking its authorisation for the use of military force against Iraq.

IRAQ’S vice president yesterday called on all Arabs to confront the United States and its people

Iraq said again today it was ready to discuss the return of UN weapons inspectors, but only in a broader context of ending sanctions and restoring Iraqi sovereignty over all its territory.

IRAQ signalled a softer stance on UN weapons inspectors in a renewed bid to stave off a threatened US assault.

Russia’s foreign minister today joined the chorus of international voices opposed to a US attack on Iraq.

FACING the increasing possibility of US military action, Iraq yesterday gave the first solid indication in nearly four years that it will allow UN weapons inspectors to return and invited the chief inspector to Baghdad for talks.

Facing the increasing possibility of US military action, Iraq today gave the first solid indication in nearly four years that it will allow UN weapons inspectors to return and invited the chief inspector to Baghdad for talks.

IRAQ said yesterday it had taken all measures to face a possible US military strike to topple President Saddam Hussein.

The UN today failed to persuade Iraq to allow the return of weapons inspectors to Baghdad, wrapping up two days of talks with no breakthrough in site.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iraq’s foreign minister were holding the final session of closed-door talks on a positive note today, but it was unclear whether it would result in the return of weapons inspectors.

Iraq and Iran today said oil should be used to put pressure on the US to force Israel out of Palestinian areas, but that all Muslim oil-producing countries needed to support the move.

Iraq’s foreign minister and the UN secretary-general agreed that their first high-level talks in a year got off to a ‘‘positive and constructive’’ start, but there was no sign Iraq would allow UN weapons inspectors back in the country.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister, Naji Sabri, has agreed to meet UN secretary general Kofi Annan next month, possibly to resume talks on weapons of mass destruction.