An audio tape purportedly from former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein broadcast on Tuesday vowed to defeat the United States to avenge the deaths of his two sons by US forces.

Iraq's US led administration, the Coalition Provisional Authority, launched a new reward poster for Saddam Hussein this week following the deaths of his sons Uday and Qusay. Saddam himself remains on the run with a $25 million price on his head.[AP]

"I mourn to you the deaths of Uday and Qusay and those who struggled with them... America will be defeated," said the voice on the tape, aired by Dubai-based al Arabiya television.

"They...died martyrs in the name of jihad (holy war)," the voice said.

The speech was rambling, breaking off in mid-sentence on occasions, but a Reuters correspondent familiar with Saddam's voice said it sounded like him. The CIA was trying to determine whether it was Saddam, a US intelligence official said. A number of tapes purportedly from Saddam have been broadcast in the past few weeks, but this was the first to refer to the killing of his two sons by US troops last Tuesday in a bloody raid on a villa in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

The US military said troops hunting Saddam had captured three key figures loyal to the former Iraqi leader, including a top bodyguard, and were closing in on Saddam himself.

Major Josslyn Aberle told Reuters one of the captured Saddam loyalists put up a brief struggle and that two gunshots were heard as the raid began in the area of Saddam's home town of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. There were no US casualties.

Television pictures filmed through a night vision lens showed a man being escorted from a building by US soldiers, blood seeping through a blindfold.

US troops believe Saddam may be hiding somewhere in the Tigris valley of dusty tomato fields and orchards.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said US forces nearly captured Saddam in raids on Monday near Tikrit.

"I think most people feel...the noose is tightening pretty regularly around the neck of Saddam Hussein," he told CNN.

US SAYS INFORMATION FLOWING ON SADDAM

Officers say that after Saddam's feared sons were killed last week + and Washington promised to pay an Iraqi informant a $30 million reward + many more Iraqis were coming forward with information on Saddam himself.

US soldiers walk past the house in which Saddam Hussein's sons, Uday and Qusay, were killed, and which is being demolished, partly to prevent people from squatting in the building in Mosul, July 29, 2003. [Reuters]

The United States is offering $25 million for information leading to the arrest or proof of death of Saddam, toppled from power by US-led forces on April 9.

Washington hopes finding Saddam would help end a guerrilla campaign that has killed 50 US troops since President George W. Bush declared major combat over on May 1.

The US military blames die-hard Saddam loyalists for the attacks, and some officers had said they hoped the killing of Uday and Qusay would demoralise anti-American assailants.

But 11 US soldiers have been killed in attacks since Saddam's sons died in a barrage of machinegun fire, grenades, rockets and anti-tank missiles as they mounted a last stand with AK-47 assault rifles.

Washington hopes tentative efforts at self-rule will appease Iraqis who dislike the US occupation, but the 25 US appointees on an Iraqi Governing Council seem to have been making slow progress.

The Council agreed on Tuesday that its presidency would rotate among nine members, ending two weeks of heated discussion over who should be in charge.

A source at the Council said the decision, taken after a six-hour meeting, reflected the members' "wish to share responsibilities in this sensitive period".

Choosing a leader was supposed to be one of the first tasks of the Council, which held its first meeting on July 13 and is seen in Washington as a first step towards a democratic government in Iraq after the war to topple Saddam.

The nine include Iraqi National Congress head Ahmed Chalabi, heads of two Kurdish parties, Iyad Allawi of the Iraqi National Accord, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim of the Shi'ite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Ibrahim Jaafari of the Da'wa Party and Muhsin Abdul Hameed of the Iraqi Islamic Party.

Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister, and Muhammed Bahr al-Uloum, an Islamic scholar, are also on the list.

The Council has the power to name and dismiss ministers, approve the 2004 budget and decide policy on economic and electoral reform, but final control of Iraq still rests with the US civilian administrator in Baghdad, Paul Bremer.

In Washington, Republican and Democrat memmbers of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee accused the Bush administration of not spelling out costs in Iraq and of focusing on its role in terrorism to the exclusion of other threats.

Echoing comments by a US military commander this week that Iraq was becoming a magnet for foreign terrorists targeting Americans, US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said: "Right now it is where (the war on terror is) being fought..."

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+China's richest village: It takes brains and guts ( 2003-08-19) +Commentary: 'Manchukuo' lies hurt relations ( 2003-08-19) +Leaders meet Australian PM ( 2003-08-19) +New security official promises open mind ( 2003-08-19) +Government to rationalize auto sector ( 2003-08-19)		+Hambali supplies up to $45,000 for Indonesian bombs ( 2003-08-19) +NY back from blackout as regulators seek cause ( 2003-08-19) +Iran warns Israel on nuclear reactors ( 2003-08-19) +Morocco bomb suspects get death sentences ( 2003-08-19) +Talks on Israeli army pullback to resume on Tuesday ( 2003-08-19)