Saddam 'sitting it out'

Saddam Hussein has been seen north of Baghdad and is paying a bounty for every dead American soldier, says an Iraqi exile group leader.

Saddam took US$1.3 billion ($2.29 billion) in cash from the Iraqi Central Bank, was bent on revenge and believed he could "sit it out", said Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraqi National Congress.

United States defence officials said they had no information that Saddam was alive.