US Central Command chief General Tommy Franks and the US Defense Secretary rejected reports today that there was a pause in the US-led push towards Baghdad.
Some US troops said they had been told a pause in land advances from the south towards the capital could be extended by several weeks because of over-stretched supply lines and stiff Iraqi resistance.
Addressing a news conference at US war headquarters in Qatar, Gen Franks rejected suggestions of a pause in fighting.
"It is simply not the case," he said.
"Reporting that is coming from inside Iraq... would reflect that combat operations are continuing. They're continuing in the north, they're continuing in the west, they're continuing right around Baghdad."
Military officials told troops with one frontline unit south of Baghdad that the pause could last 35 to 40 days, far longer than a wait of up to six days they were warned of yesterday. The Pentagon has denied there is any pause on the battlefield.
Asked if the war launched 11 days ago to overthrow President Saddam Hussein could last until summer, Franks said: "One never knows."
"We don't need to remind ourselves that the outcome has not been is not and will not be in question," he said. "Where we stand today is not only acceptable in my view, it is truly remarkable."
Gen Franks also told the briefing that US-led forces had destroyed a "terrorist facility" in northern Iraq.
"Coalition forces have attacked and destroyed in the last 48 hours a massive terrorist facility in northern Iraq," he said.
He gave no details but Washington accuses the Ansar al-Islam group, which has several hundred fighters in northern Iraq, of working to make chemical weapons with help from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network.US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the United States has "no plans for pauses or cease-fires" in its war against Iraq and said he could not predict how long the conflict would last.
Appearing on ABC's This Week, program, MR Rumsfeld took issue with reports that a pause in war operations could last as much as a month or more.
"We have no plans for pauses or cease-fires or anythingelse," Rumsfeld said.