Saddam generals captured in Iraq

US troops have been targeted in and around Falluja

US troops in Iraq have captured two former Iraqi army generals in the town of Falluja, US officials have said.

Military sources said the pair are believed to have financed and organised anti-coalition fighters in the area, west of Baghdad.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, has announced plans to send thousands of additional troops to Iraq early next year.

But, defence officials said the number of US troops currently serving in Iraq could be reduced by next May.

Falluja raided

Military officials said the generals were captured by paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division in an early morning raid in Falluja, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

The two men have not been publicly identified, but defence officials say they are suspected of playing a key role into anti-coalition violence in and around the flashpoint town, a bastion of supporters of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The BBC's Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says it is not clear just how significant these two new detainees may be.

But, he says, at the very least, Pentagon officials say they hope they could lead to other members of the Iraqi resistance.

Call-up

General Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that thousands of active duty and part-time National Guard and Reserve troops will be sent to Iraq in 2004.

It does include a call-up of reserves, it does include use of land forces, it does include the Navy and Air Force with their capabilities to participate General Peter Pace US to send marines to Iraq

"It does include a call-up of reserves, it does include use of land forces, it does include the Navy and Air Force with their capabilities to participate," he said.

He said they would be part of a rotation plan and the actual number of soldiers serving in Iraq will be reduced from 132,000 to just over 100,000 in six months' time.

While some US marines were still serving in Iraq recently, the withdrawal of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force in September largely placed the security burden on the regular US army.

'Secret pre-war talks'

Meanwhile, it is reported in America that the influential Pentagon advisor Richard Perle was contacted by an intermediary representing the Iraqis in the days before the war.

The New York Times says the contacts could have been an attempt to get a message from Saddam Hussein relayed to Washington.

Among the information that the Iraqis appeared to want to provide was that they had no weapons of mass destruction.

The New York Times says Mr Perle met an intermediary - a Lebanese businessman - but nothing came of the contacts.