Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and his generals are hiding in a desert fortress about 100 kilometers from his hometown Tikrit, preparing for a final bloody showdown, said a British daily today.

The Sun

said that Saddam has now turned Al Hawijah into his last stronghold.

"Kurdish police were massacred when they ventured into the village a day after he arrived. Survivors said the area was now overrun with foreign Arabs loyal to Saddam," added the report.

The daily however added that it was unsure if Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were with him or if they are already dead.

Saddam was said to have fled to this desert village of Al Hawijah with his family, aides and a personal army as US-led forces advanced o­n to Tikrit, where US commanders believed Saddam would make his last stand.

Tikrit is Saddam's hometown and if filled with his clansmen who are very loyal to him.

The Sun

said that the US troops who swept into Tikrit were told by residents that Saddam was in the city four days ago.

Transitional point

News agency Reuters meanwhile reported that Tikrit fell easily to the US marines yesterday, bringing the 26-day-old war to a transitional point.

Reuters

quoted British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington's main ally, as saying : "We are near the end of the conflict. But the challenge of the peace is now beginning."

The report said that marines charged into Tikrit at dawn after a fierce overnight aerial bombardment of remnants of the Republican Guard. Attack helicopters swooped low over o­ne district, firing heavy machine guns at clusters of do-or-die defenders as marine patrols combed a bombed-out presidential palace in search of senior supporters of the ousted government.

"Resistance was less than expected. But there was no sign of the jubilation seen when other Iraqi cities fell. A statue of a resplendent Saddam o­n horseback stood unscathed and pristine pictures of him adorned lampposts."

"But some local residents flashed thumbs-up signs and said they looked forward to peace, added Reuters .

Smaller, sharper fights

With the fall of Tikrit, major US-led fighting in Iraq appears to be over, although some smaller confrontations continue, Pentagon officials was quoted by CNN as saying.

"I would anticipate that the major combat engagements are over," Maj Gen.Stanley McChrystal told reporters at a Pentagon briefing. He said US forces are moving into a phase of "smaller, albeit sharper fights."

McChrystal said the number of daily air missions had dropped to 700 or 800 in recent days, down from about 1,000 or more a day. And Monday, he said, marked the last day that aircraft from all five air carriers would fly missions over Iraq.

CNN

added that plans were announced to scale back the American naval presence in the Persian Gulf by bringing home two carrier groups in the coming days

Heat o­n Syria

In another related development, the US and British officials turned up the diplomatic heat o­n Syria, with the White House continuing to accuse Iraq's neighbor of developing chemical weapons and warning it not to harbor members of Saddam's regime.

According to CNN , the US called o­n Syrian leaders to "review their actions and their behavior, not o­nly with respect to who gets haven in Syria and weapons of mass destruction, but especially the support of terrorist activity."

Calling Syria a "state that sponsors terrorism," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer quoted from a 2002 CIA report that Syria "already held nerve gas ... but is trying develop more toxic and persistent nerve agents", said CNN .

"There are acceptable standards of behavior that the world and certainly the free Iraqi people hope will be followed by its neighbors, including Syria," Fleischer was quoted as saying, "and part of that is not to harbor Iraqi leaders."