Rumsfeld sets his sights on 'unfinished business'

3.00pm - by RUPERT CORNWELL

WASHINGTON - As the Bush Administration today savoured the fall of Baghdad, Vice-President Dick Cheney warned that the "extraordinary" Iraq campaign sent a clear message to "all violent groups" that the US had the will and the power to win the war on terrorism decisively.

The Vice-President and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, took pains to warn of the potential troubles, especially in President Saddam's family stronghold of Tikrit, and in the oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk, which are still held by the regime.

Mr Rumsfeld listed the unfinished business of the war, notably the need to locate the wealth of Saddam's regime, to find his alleged weapons of mass destruction - in whose name the war was fought - and the need to secure the northern oilfields.

"The regime has suffered a serious blow," he told reporters at the Pentagon, but British and US forces would not stop "until we've finished and all Iraqi people are liberated".

He added: "There's a lot more fighting to be done, and more people will be killed; make no mistake about it."

General Richard Myers, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said there were only pockets of resistance in southern Iraq, 10 regular Iraqi army divisions and probably a Republican Guard one remained to be overcome in the north.

For the United States, Saddam Hussein is history, although the Administration admits it is not sure whether he is alive or dead. The Iraqi leader has "taken his rightful place" with failed dictators of the past, such as Hitler and Stalin, Rumsfeld said.

At the White House, Mr Bush was said to be "heartened by developments", as he watched the dramatic pictures from Baghdad.

But the Pentagon was said to be horrified when a US Marine draped a US flag around the head of a statue of President Saddam as it was about to be pulled down in a Baghdad square, an image that clashed with the invasion's proclaimed goal of liberation, not occupation. Luckily, the Stars and Stripes were quickly replaced by a black, white and red Iraqi flag.

But Mr Cheney, a driving force to topple President Saddam, could not resist a dig at the critics of how the war had been waged. The advance to Baghdad had been "one of the most extraordinary military campaigns ever conducted", he told newspaper editors in New Orleans.

"With every day, with every advance of our coalition forces the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent," he added. Those who had accused the Pentagon of deploying too few troops and overextending its supply lines in the three-week war were "retired military officers embedded in TV studios", a reference to the 700 reporters "embedded" with field units of the US and British forces.

Mr Cheney also made clear that the US, and to a lesser extent Britain, would have the key role in rebuilding Iraq. That job, and the creation of a new Iraqi government, "had to reside with the US government".

Though the United Nations and foes of the war would be expected to be involved with the humanitarian effort in post-Saddam Iraq, "We don't believe the UN is equipped to play that central role. It will play a very important role, but the central role will reside with the coalition," MrCheney added.

Mr Rumsfeld, who last week accused Damascus of helping President Saddam's regime, warned that Syria was continuing to provide military aid to Baghdad's forces, and intelligence reported "senior military people" from the regime had fled to Syria.

He also implied some of President Saddam's suspected weapons of mass destruction might have been moved there. Asked whether he was worried that such weapons had been taken out of Iraq, Mr Rumsfeld replied crisply: "You bet."

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Herald Feature: Iraq war