BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON - President Saddam Hussein in a written statement on Tuesday urged Iraqis to wage a holy war against invaders, as the United States made clear that only an unconditional Iraqi surrender would end the war.

　　In a statement attributed to him read out on state television, Saddam urged Iraqis to fight American and British troops wherever they were. "Hit them, fight them. ... Fight them everywhere," the statement said.

　　Saddam, 65, did not appear personally. Rumors have swirled since the war began 15 days ago that he may have been hurt in a US air attack. He has been seen several times on television but it was unknown when those appearances were recorded.

　　In recent days, US warplanes have subjected Baghdad to a tremendous battering as land forces fought to within 80 km of the capital.

　　Saddam's message this time, unaccompanied by images of the leader, was read out by Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the fact that Saddam "did not show up" in person was "interesting."

　　Rumsfeld's use of the term "unconditional surrender" was the bluntest statement yet of US war aims, which are officially to oust Saddam, his family and supporters, install a more representative Iraqi government and destroy the weapons of mass destruction the United States insists Saddam is hiding.

　　So far, no such weapons have been found.

　　"There will be no outcome to this war that leaves Saddam Hussein and his regime in power," Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing. "Let there be no doubt, his time will end, and soon. The only thing that the coalition will discuss with this regime is their unconditional surrender."

　　But Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz said he was confident Iraq could frustrate Washington's war aims.

　　"We are confident of victory. Victory how? Victory is defeating aggression by preventing it from achieving its goals. This is victory," he said in an interview with the Arab satellite channel LBC.

　　Civilian deaths

　　Saddam's call for jihad followed more fighting in the south, air raids on the Iraqi capital and on the northern city of Kirkuk and more civilian deaths in an air raid, deaths that have further fired Arab anger.

　　US commander Richard Myers expressed regret for the deaths of seven women and children killed by US troops at a checkpoint on Monday. However, he said, "the climate established by the Iraqi regime contributed to this incident."

　　US troops have been nervous of possible suicide bombers since a suicide attack killed four soldiers on Saturday.

　　The civilian deaths were bound to damage US efforts to win Iraqi hearts and minds. But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said "slowly but surely the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people are being won over as they see security increase in their areas, as humanitarian deliveries are stepped up."

　　Reporters with invading US and British troops said a pause of several days in their advance toward Iraq's capital - hit again on Tuesday by bombs and missiles - appeared to be over and the armor was on the move again.

　　"It seems as though the operational pause in our sector is over. We've swung from passivity to activity quite quickly," correspondent Sean Maguire said from central Iraq.

　　The outskirts of Baghdad were again heavily bombed on Tuesday, particularly in the south. Huge plumes of white smoke rose on the horizon. Iraq said the latest attacks there had killed 24 civilians - 19 overnight and five on Tuesday.

　　Myers told reporters in Washington that the pummeling from the air and ground had left two of Iraq's elite Republican Guard divisions below 50 percent of their initial combat capability. While they had not staged a retreat, he said US officials had seen some troops dispersesintoscivilian areas.

　　Residents defiant

　　Reporters said the almost constant bombing had made many Baghdad residents determined to defy invading forces.

　　US troops have been welcomed in Kurdish regions of northern Iraq. On Tuesday, US planes pounded targets just outside Kirkuk in what Kurdish fighters called the heaviest attack on the strategic oil hub since the start of the war.

　　Minister Sahaf said US-led air raids over the past day had killed a total of 56 civilians throughout the country. Iraq has put total civilian deaths to date at 653 but there was no way to independently verify this figure. Baghdad has issued no numbers of its military casualties.

　　Reporters taken by Iraqi officials to a hospital in the town of Hilla saw 11 bodies, apparently civilians. Residents said they were killed when US bombs hit the residential area. Sahaf said nine of the dead were children.

　　"What has he done wrong, what has he done wrong?" demanded the driver of the truck carrying the bodies, as he held the corpse of an infant.

　　At a televised news conference on Tuesday, Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan said 6,000 volunteer fighters had arrived in Iraq. more than half were suicide fighters and "you'll hear about them soon."

　　US Marines on Tuesday shot dead an unarmed driver and badly wounded his passenger at a roadblock south of Baghdad.

　　The United States has downplayed the diplomatic fall-out from the Iraq war so far, but Secretary of State Colin Powell left Washington on Tuesday morning for a hastily arranged trip to Europe and Turkey.

　　Powell told reporters he sought a "spirit of accommodation" and a Turkish pledge not to launch an incursionsintosnorthern Iraq, a move Washington fears could undermine its war effort.