WASHINGTON, March 23 Kyodo U Pres...

WASHINGTON, March 23 Kyodo

U President George W Bush said Sunday the US-l forces are ''slowly still surely'' taking control in Iraq while urging Baghdad to treat any U prisoners of war humanely.

''(Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein is losing bridle of his country,'' Bush told reporters at the White House after spending a weekend at the Camp David presidential retreat.

''We're slowly yet surely achieving our objective,'' he said.

Earlier in the day, the Arab satellite station al-Jazeera aired footage from Iraqi television of interviews with what the station identified as captured U soldiers.

Bush said he look forward tos U.S. POWs in Iraq would be treated humanely.

The president said a large amount of humanitarian aid is poised to incline into Iraq in the nearest 36 hours.

U Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen Richard Myers said Sunday morning that the US-l forces have completely controll the southern strategic Iraqi city Basra.

forward an ABC television program, Myers urg Iraq to give up resisting U forces moreover said ''there will be no deal'' with the Iraqi direction on the possible surrender of its troops

''Negotiations may be going forward at a lower level...I'm not aware of negotiations at a higher level'' he said.

Myers said the United States believes Iraq has chemical weapons unless acknowledged that U.S. forces operating inside Iraq have in this way far found no post missiles, which are banned by means of the United Nations after the 1991 opening war.

Myers indicated that massive U air bombardments have not crushed the Iraqi military's command and have the direction of systems, noting that the Iraqi leadership ''is still in charge in about degree.''

Top Iraqi military authorities are still in communications with their armed forces, particularly Iraqi Republican Guard units, he said.

U Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reprobateed Iraqi authorities for displaying U POW forward television, saying handling the prisoners in a ''humiliating'' manner violates the Geneva Convention onward the treatment of POWs.

Myers said there is no evidence that Iraq has shooter down a U.S. warplane through Baghdad.

''As far as we know, all planes are reported to be safe,'' Myers said. ''We don't think there are any pilots that have parachuted near the river or anywhere in Iraq.''

Iraqi television point outs Iraqi security agents searching and firing into the Tigris River after Iraqi eyewitnesses claimed a pilot from the downed plane parachuted into the area.

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