Iraq has claimed that more than 350 civilians have been killed in the first week of the war and has accused the US of dropping cluster bombs on civilians in Baghdad.
The charges yesterday coincided with vows of "maximum damage" to US-led forces as state television twice showed President Saddam Hussein meeting senior officials from the government, military and his ruling Baath party.
The Health Minister, Mr Umid Medhat Mubarak, told reporters in Baghdad that more than 350 people had been killed and 3,650 wounded since the US and Britain launched the war on March 20th.
There has been no indepedent confirmation of these figures.
He said the figures were "approximate", but that women, children and the elderly accounted for most of the victims. He alleged coalition forces had used cluster bombs on civilians in Baghdad and Iraq's second-largest city, Basra.
Human Rights Watch has reported extensive previous use of cluster bombs by US forces in Afghanistan and the first Gulf War in 1991.
The bombs unleash hundreds of smaller munitions that disperse over wide areas.
Meanwhile, the head of the Iraqi civil defence, Gen Hatem Ali al-Khalaf, said raids on the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala to the south had killed 13 and wounded 56.
There has been no accurate indication of Iraqi troop casualties, but they were involved in intense fighting at many locations in central Iraq yesterday.
American troops using tanks and attack helicopters engaged in heavy fighting with Iraqi forces at the town of Samawah, about 150 miles south of Baghdad and on a crucial supply route.
The US military is investigating reports that farther south 37 marines were injured when they were hit by fire from their own side near the city of Nasiriya. The incident happened after 30 marines were injured in a surprise Iraqi rocket attack.
US marines pushing towards Baghdad from the southern city of Nassiriya treated enemy wounded yesterday and searched the blood-stained luggage of Iraqis killed inside a bus by a storm of bullets from advancing armoured units earlier.
Meanwhile British forces said they had destroyed 14 Iraqi tanks and four troop carriers, making the latest of several attempts to break out of the city of Basra early yesterday.
The Pentagon has said US forces fired 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 4,300 precision-guided bombs in the first six days of the war.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, claimed that two dead British soldiers shown on the Al-Jazeera TV network had been executed.
Several hundred tribespeople are reported to have died at the hands of Iraqi forces in a village near Kirkuk, according to a BBC reporter in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.
Official US figures say 24 Americans have been killed in combat while 10 are missing.
A total of 22 British troops have been killed in combat by friendly fire or in accidents. Two are missing.
US army troops reported killing about 1,000 Iraqis in three days of fighting around Najaf, 93 miles south of Baghdad. Iraq denied the claim. - (Reuters, AFP)