4.00pm
UDDATE - Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln - US President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq today, saying the United States and its allies had prevailed over Saddam Hussein and reconstruction of the shattered nation was under way.
Speaking to thousands of military personnel on the deck of a homeward-bound aircraft carrier hours after a grenade attack wounded seven US soldiers in Iraq, Bush said the six-week war there was "one victory in a war on terror."
"Major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Bush said. "In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country."
In Falluja, a Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad, Iraqis attacked a US base on Thursday in apparent anger at the killing of 15 residents by US troops who fired at angry crowds twice this week, the military said.
"The attack was an expression of the anger of a few people in the city after what happened," said US Capt. Alan Vaught. The US Central Command said of seven soldiers wounded, five required medical attention and were in a stable condition.
The attack underscored the turbulence still facing Bush as he seeks to rebuild Iraq after a swift and relatively easy military victory.
Bush, who made a dramatic landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, told Americans that the United States was still pursuing important objectives in Iraq.
"We have difficult work to do. ... The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done," the president said.
Bush's commander in the Iraq conflict, Gen. Tommy Franks, told him on Tuesday that major combat operations were over.
Washington went to war against Iraq on March 20 because of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, but so far it has found none.
Bush also has sought to tie the deposed Saddam government to the al Qaeda group blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States despite the lack of definitive proof.
"The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror," he said. "We have removed an ally of al Qaeda and cut off a source of terrorist funding and this much is certain -- no terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime because the Iraqi regime is no more."
The president made a grand entrance when he was flown to the aircraft carrier, which was steaming toward San Diego on the West Coast with its more than 5,000 military personnel.
Sitting next to the pilot on an S-3B Viking plane, he made a sudden, stomach-wrenching stop as a cable caught the aircraft on the carrier's flight deck.
Dressed in a green flight suit and carrying his helmet under his arm, Bush emerged smiling to greet crew members, shaking hands, chatting and posing for pictures taken by pilots and flight crews.
As Bush was preparing for his moment of triumph, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had talks in Kuwait on reducing the US military presence in the region and Secretary of State Colin Powell began a European and Middle Eastern diplomatic mission in Spain.
Rumsfeld, who said major combat operations were over in Afghanistan, the United States' other war front, is to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main Iraq war ally, in London on Friday for talks on post-Saddam reconstruction.
Iraqis, who toppled statues of their ousted leader, have largely shown gratitude to the Americans for bringing Saddam down but also have made clear they want US troops to leave as soon as possible.
Pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, back from decades in exile, said growing frustration about the disruption to basic services in Iraq could prompt new bouts of violence.
Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, told Reuters an Iraqi force should be set up to patrol towns and cities so as to prevent a repeat of Falluja-like clashes with US troops.
In central Baghdad, at least three people were killed and more than 18 were badly burned when Iraqis celebrating the resumption of electricity shot up a gas tanker, sending waves of fire through a gas station.
Powell began a three-day trip to Spain, Albania, Syria and Lebanon, skirting the edges of two of Washington's biggest foreign policy problems -- the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and relations with European opponents of the Iraq war.
He said the overthrow of Saddam had created a "new strategic dynamic" in the Middle East and Syria should review its policies. During the war, the United States complained that Syria was allowing Arab volunteers into Iraq to fight US forces and might be letting in Iraqi fugitives.
Next week Powell meets Israelis and Palestinians for talks on a peace "road map" leading to a Palestinian state by 2005.
- REUTERS
Transcript: George W. Bush announces end of war