Latest developments at a glance

:: American troops moved to capture Baghdad’s Saddam International Airport as the Iraqi capital came under renewed bombing. Coalition forces occupied around 75% of the sprawling site and initial reports said they met little opposition from Iraqi forces.

:: ABC reporter Bob Schmidt, embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, said US forces encountered very little Iraqi resistance at the airport. Some units did encounter scattered firing by Iraqi foot soldiers and men in pick-up trucks, Schmidt said.

:: Tracer fire, explosives and burning buildings lit up an otherwise blacked-out Baghdad as a new round of explosions in the centre of the city sent huge plumes of smoke into the sky.

:: The power went out in Baghdad for the first time since the bombardments began two weeks ago. Pentagon officials said the city’s power grid had not been targeted by the US military.

:: The coalition’s advance units were said to be just four miles from the edge of Baghdad following a fast-moving two-pronged advance on the city. The US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, backed by the 82nd Airborne Division, closed in from the south west as US marines moved in from the south east.

:: Civilians in Baghdad were ordered by Iraqi authorities to drive to the airport to defend it, according to CNN.

:: Iraq television showed footage of a relaxed and smiling Saddam Hussein meeting more than a dozen senior government and Baath Party officials, including Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan.

:: Central Command said a US soldier was killed in a “friendly fire” incident as he investigated a destroyed tank when he reportedly was mistaken for an Iraqi. Pentagon chiefs were also looking into the possibility that a FA-18 Hornet fighter jet was shot down by a US Patriot missile and that a second warplane fired on coalition ground forces, killing one person and injuring several others.

:: Raids on the Tharthar presidential palace north west of Baghdad failed to find Saddam Hussein or his sons, Navy Lt Mark Kitchens at Central Command said.

:: Coalition troops were just four miles from the centre of Basra, setting up camp on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city despite facing lively mortar defence from Iraqi fighters.

:: Labour backbenchers have demanded the suspension of the parliamentary Easter recess while war in Iraq continued.

:: Tentative plans for a multi-national effort to rebuild post-war Iraq were being considered after US Secretary of State Colin Powell promised the United Nations a role in the country’s reconstruction.

:: Leading Iraqi Muslim religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani has urged his countrymen not to oppose invading Allied troops.

:: Exiled Iraqi oil professionals were meeting in London at the Oil and Energy Working Group to discuss the future of the industry after the war.

:: A bridge seized by British troops in the suburbs of Basra has been unofficially named in memory of a soldier who died at the outbreak of the war. Commando-trained Royal Engineers have dubbed the crossing Welly Bridge in honour of Lance Bombardier Llywelyn Evans who died last month when a US Sea Knight helicopter crashed south of the Kuwait border.