Pentagon has eight-point plan in US-led invasion

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last night outlined eight objectives pursued

Rumsfeld's rules:

1. End the regime of Saddam Hussein by striking with force on a scope and scale that makes clear to Iraqis that he and his regime are finished.

2. Identify, isolate and eventually eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, production capabilities, and distribution networks.

3. Search for, capture and drive out terrorists who have found safe harbour in Iraq.

4. Collect intelligence related to terrorist networks in Iraq and beyond.

5. Collect intelligence as related to the global network of illicit weapons of mass destruction activity.

6. End sanctions and immediately deliver humanitarian relief, food and medicine to the displaced and to the many needy Iraqi citizens.

7. Secure Iraq's oil fields and resources, which belong to the Iraqi people and which they will need to develop their country after decades of neglect by the Iraqi regime.

8. Help the Iraqi people create the conditions for a rapid transition to a representative self-government that is not a threat to its neighbours and is committed to ensuring the territorial integrity of that country.

As Rumsfeld outlined the eight-point plan, Saddam Hussein's regime projected its power through unusually abusive language, flat denials of military setbacks and a show of force by its most ardent supporters.

With the United States insisting that Saddam's authority is on the verge of crumbling, the Iraqi government is more pressed than ever before to show itself in control.

Its message has a twofold purpose: to reassure its own officials that the government is not a sinking ship and to project an image of power to Iraqi Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims who have rebelled in the past.

Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf has been leading the campaign. In news conferences in both English and Arabic al-Sahhaf led the verbal onslaught on President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, calling them "war criminals," "assassins" and "villains."

Al-Sahhaf has coined new phrases to add to the large collection of colourful descriptions of the country's foes used regularly since the start of Iraq's latest stand-off with Washington six months ago.

He calls the Anglo-American

alliance "the international gang of rascals" and the Bush administration "the American evil empire."

To deal with TV pictures showing the battle is not going Iraq's way, al-Sahhaf has a simple technique denial. Yesterday, he said shots of Iraqi soldiers surrendering to US forces were not what they seem. "They are not Iraqis," he insisted.

He also suggested Kuwait would soon be emptied of its people after the "panic" caused by Iraqi missiles fired on the neighbouring sheikdom on Thursday despite the evidence that, unlike during the Iraqi invasion of 1990, most Kuwaitis are staying put.