'Anxious days' to come, warns Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said coalition forces were preparing for "a crucial moment" when they take on the Medina Division of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard in the battle for Baghdad.

Mr Blair told MPs that allied forces were now parked 60 miles south of the Iraqi capital, near the town of Karbala.

"It is a little way from there that they will encounter the Medina Division of the Republican Guard who are defending the route to Baghdad. This will be a crucial moment," he said.

The premier gave away no further details of when he expects that clash to be.

But he said in a Commons statement: "Saddam will go, this regime will be replaced. The Iraqi people will be helped to a better future.

"The weapons of mass destruction - for which a peaceful Iraq has no use - will be eliminated.

"That we will encounter more difficulties and anxious moments in the days ahead is certain. But no less certain, indeed more so, is coalition victory."

As if to confirm his comments about difficult days ahead, news came through even as Mr Blair was speaking of the first known death in action suffered by British forces in the Gulf.

It was confirmed by British military sources that a soldier had been killed early this morning during an operation near Al Zubayr in southern Iraq.

The Prime Minister spent the day being briefed on developments after chairing a meeting of his War Cabinet.

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