"Armies can not keep moving forever without stopping from time to time to regroup, to ensure their supplies are up," Jackson told a news conference here at the Ministry of Defence.

"The Iraqi forces in the south are fixed, by that we mean they are pinned down, their ability to maneuver is very limited indeed," Jackson told reporters.

A fight between coalition forces and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard was "not too far away," Jackson said, adding that about 4,000 Iraqis have surrendered to the coalition forces.

While admitting that the coalition forces have met determined resistance from Iraqi forces, Jackson also said British forces were well supplied and had comfortable shot supply lines.

British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon earlier warned that supply lines may have reduced the chances of swift military victory in Iraq.

Also on Friday, local reports quoted US military officials as saying that stiff Iraqi resistance is slowing the progress of the invasion force as battles rage around strategic towns in southern Iraq.

In another development, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who returned to London early in the day after two-day summit on Iraq with US President George W. Bush, convened another war cabinet meeting at Downing Street, where his key cabinet members and Defence chiefs came together to discuss the progress of the military campaign in Iraq.

Local reports speculated that Britain may be considering sending more troops to the Gulf after the United States decided to deploy another 10,000 troops to Iraq.

Britain, which firmly supports the United States in the run-up to the war with Iraq, has committed about 45,000 troops to the ongoing US-led war.

(Xinhua News Agency March 29, 2003)