The correspondents were taken to an area 15 km southwest of Baghdad, where a battle between US-British invaders and Iraqi defenders had taken place.

The correspondents saw the wreckage of a Chieftain tank, one of the most sophisticated tanks in the world, which had been damaged by Iraqi anti-tank artillery in the battle.

An officer of the Iraqi Republican Guard told the foreign correspondents that three other Chieftain tanks had been captured by Iraqi troops and taken to a secret place.

A main road from Baghdad to the southwest of Iraq was damaged partly in the battle, said the Xinhua reporter. "It seems US-led coalition troops took a hit-and-run tactics in the battleground outside Baghdad."

However, the US-led coalition warplanes launched a new round of bombardment on targets in central Baghdad early Sunday, huge explosions and artillery fire were heard from the western outskirts of Baghdad.

While fighting fiercely in the battlefields, the two sides also had an exchange in a verbal clash over the situation in Baghdad. The US army said that some US troops had entered Baghdad, while Iraqi president Saddam Hussein appeared on TV late Saturday night with his two sons and senior military officers, showing that he was still in control of the country's capital.

(Xinhua News Agency April 6, 20030