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Baghdad has experienced the quietest night of the war so far although there was sporadic gunfire before dawn.

American troops are trying to strengthen their hold of the city from three areas.

A brigade of several thousand soldiers controls the centre of the city as other forces drive in from the north-west and south-east.

Baghdad hospitals are reporting a steady stream of casualties and three more journalists have been killed after the city's Palestine Hotel was hit in a bomb attack.

UK forces

People in Basra clamour for food and water

British troops in Basra are co-ordinating humanitarian relief efforts after taking control of the city on Monday.

But British military leaders are reluctant for UK forces to take on a policing role in Iraq's second city.

They have met with the city's religous leaders to discourage the widespread looting that has been taking place.

Elsewhere in the south of the country coalition forces are containing some 13,500 prisoners of war.

They claim all Pows are being treated in line with the Geneva Convention.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has post-poned discussions on the post-war reconstruction of Iraq.

UK Foreign Office minister Mike O'Brien has echoed French demands that settlement should be reached by UN resolution.

Click here to see our discussion about the reconstruction of Iraq

Hunt for Saddam

British security sources believe it is likely Saddam Hussein and his sons escaped a specifically-targeted US bomb attack on a Baghdad restaurant on Monday.

US commanders in Qatar say they are still gathering forensic evidence to establish whether the Iraqi leader is dead or alive.