Hours after US forces launched an attack in central Baghdad on Monday morning, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said al-Sahhaf insisted that Baghdad was strong, fortified and safe.

Sahhaf told correspondents Republican Guards were fighting the Americans and that he would soon arrange a tour of the city for them.

A Reuters correspondent reported that the information ministry and the foreign ministry in Baghdad were firmly in Iraqi hands, with heavily armed Republican Guards spread around the locality in fighting positions.

The foreign ministry is a few hundred metres from the main gates of one of the presidential palaces which US forces claim to have occupied.

Reuters correspondent Khaled Yacoub Oweis said Republican Guard units, each carrying half a dozen rocket-propelled grenades, were spread around the information ministry and the foreign ministry building.

"There is a no man's land between the Iraqi troops and American troops on the street in front of the building," he said.

Oweis said many of the bridges that cross the Tigris are still under the control of Iraqi forces but the bridge directly next to the information ministry was open.

"Senek bridge is open but it's a combat zone once you cross and head towards the palace," he said.

On the 19th day of the US-led war to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, US soldiers backed by heavy armour and aerial bombardment entered the heart of the capital and drove two tanks deep inside a presidential palace.