"The oil fields in the south are being saved to benefit the Iraqi people. Coalition forces have the key port of Umm Qasr and are making good progress in Basra," Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke told reporters at a news conference.

"It is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat to region and the world is ended," she said. "The Iraqi forces, including some leadership, are surrendering and defecting in some numbers."

US warplanes flew more than 1,000 sorties against several hundred targets across Iraq in the past 24 hours and more than 400Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from US and British ships and submarines, said Major Gen. Stanley McChrystal of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The goal of the air campaign is to neutralize Iraqi leadership, suppress missile threats to our forces and Iraq's neighbors," he said at the news conference.

US forces have progressed 150 miles into Iraq, halfway to Baghdad, McChrystal said "They also have successfully crossed the Euphrates River, the major waterway en route to the capital."

(Xinhua News Agency March 23, 2003)