The figures were approximate but women, children and the elderly accounted for most of the victims, he added.

The Iraqi minister affirmed that the invasion forces had used cluster bombs on civilians in Baghdad and Iraq's second-largest city Basra, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Medical facilities and personnel had also been targeted in the cities of Nasiriyah and Najaf, he said.

A series of explosions boomed out early Thursday from Baghdad's southern rim, site of a huge military camp relentlessly pounded by U.S. and British raids as the invasion forces advance north on the capital.

Baghdad was hammered through the night, when three massive explosions could be felt in the city centre.

Pentagon officials claimed an errant missile may have been responsible for the missile attack that also left 30 people injured.

In another related development, the Pentagon said the U.S. invasion forces had fired 600 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 4,300 precision-guided bombs in the first six days of the war.

Outlining some figures, the Pentagon said more than 250,000 U.S. forces had been deployed in support of operations, as well as 40,000 mainly British and Australian forces.

"We are more than 220 miles (355 kilometers) into Iraqi territory and have done it in over six days in spite of difficult weather," said Major General Stanley McChrystal Joint Staff vice-director of operations.

"Since March 20, our forces have fired more than 600 Tomahawks and dropped more than 4,300 precision-guided weapons," he told reporters, adding nearly 700 sorties were flown Tuesday, March 24, alone.

The Pentagon's main spokeswoman Victoria Clarke said that 24 U.S. forces had been killed since the offensive started, and 19 had been wounded.

As well as the 290,000 forces, thousands of others are ready to depart for the Gulf, including 12,000 troops from the 4th Infantry Division who start flying out of their Texas base Thursday to join the war.

Meanwhile, senior U.S. officials quoted by the Washington Post said the war could last months and need massive reinforcements.

Bad weather, dangerously long supply lines and a feisty resistance by Iraqi forces "has led to a broad reassessment by some top generals of U.S. military expectations and timelines," the paper said.

So the war against Iraq could last months and require considerable U.S. military reinforcements to assure a victory, the Post quoted unnamed senior U.S. military officials as saying.

"Tell me how this ends," one senior officer asked the paper.

Most U.S. army commanders believe it is critical to pause the breakneck advance towards Baghdad in order to secure the supply lines and make sure weapons are operable and troops resupplied after days of powerful sandstorms and damage inflicted by Iraqi attacks.

Fresh reinforcements however can be deployed only slowly, it will take a month for the army's 4th Infantry Division, originally to enter Iraq from Turkey, to unload in Kuwait and get their tanks and other heavy equipment in position to provide aid to U.S.-led invasion in Iraq, the defense officials told the Post.

An estimated 12,000 forces from the 4th Infantry Division are to start flying to the Gulf on Thursday, from their base at Fort Hood, Texas, a military spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Publicly U.S. officials have insisted that the war is going according to plan, and U.S. forces are some 100 kilometers (60 miles) outside of Baghdad.

In a separate story, the Post quoted Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon intelligence analysts as complaining that the Bush administration largely ignored their warning that Iraqi irregular forces would use guerrilla tactics and offer significant resistance.

"The intelligence we gathered before the war accurately reflected what the troops are seeing out there now," one military intelligence official told the American paper.

"The question is whether the war planners and policymakers took adequate notice of it in preparing the plan," the official added.