Iraqi Council Selects First Leader

Occupation Soldiers Continue to Seek out Saddam

American troops continue to comb the streets of Tikrit, even at night. Their hope is that they may find a clue that may lead them to him.

After months of searching, Saddam’s mystique has fired the imagination of US troops, who have reportedly now given him the nickname "Elvis."

But the appearance of a new tape in which the Iraqi leader appears to describe the death of his sons as part of a ‘jihad’, against American occupiers will do little to boost morale.

However Washington insists the net is closing in, and that recent raids have missed Saddam by a matter of hours.

Today, US president George Bush told reporters in the White House Rose Garden: "I don’t know how close we are to getting Saddam Hussein. Closer than we were yesterday, I guess. All I know is that we’re on the hunt. It’s like if you asked me just before we captured Saddam’s sons how close were were, I would have said the same, I don’t know, but we’re on the hunt."

"We’re making progress slowly but surely, bringing those who terrorise their fellow citizens to justice and making progress on convincing the Iraqi people that freedom is real," he said.

The US leader also accepted personal responsibility for a controversial portion of last winter’s State of the Union address dealing with claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear material in Africa.

"I take personal responsibility for everything I say, absolutely," the president said at his White House news conference.

Despite these comments, Bush said weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq. "We have teams of investigators hard at work to prove the truth," he said. "We are getting closer to the truth. We know he (Saddam) used chemical weapons," he conveyed.