The Americans have released more aerial photographs of damage inflicted by last week's airstrikes against Iraq.

At a briefing in Washington, the US Gulf commander, General Anthony Zinni, said the defence ministry in Baghdad and the headquarters of the governing Ba'ath party had been hit.

The command and control structures of the Revolutionary Guard had been significantly damaged.

General Zinni said a full assessment of battle damage would probably take several more days.

The most surprising aspect of the operation, he said, had been the lack of a concerted Iraqi response to the attacks.

The United States defence secretary, William Cohen, told correspondents that the airstrikes had delayed Iraq's development of ballistic missiles by at least a year.