Saddam Hussein survived an attack on a building in Baghdad in which he was reported to have been meeting his sons Uday and Qusay on Monday afternoon, British intelligence sources said last night.

George Bush moved to reassure Tony Blair and sceptical world opinion yesterday that the United States would guarantee a ”vital role” for the United Nations in postwar Iraq and that he would commit his own prestige to promoting the Middle East peace process.

Early yesterday morning, a little after daybreak in the newly liberated city of Basra, Mohammed Hussain (49) opened the door to his apartment. As his wife and children sat chatting in the kitchenette, Mr Hussain, a taxi driver, threw open bare cupboard after bare cupboard. ”I have nothing,” he said. ”Saddam and the war took everything.”

With US tanks assuming control of ever larger chunks of Baghdad, politicians in London and Washington were asking last night how long it would take for the Iraqi regime to collapse.

The two journalists who broke the Watergate scandal have sold their notebooks and papers related to the story for -million. But the identity of Deep Throat, their anonymous source, will remain secret until his death.

Forty million Africans are at risk of starving but are not getting enough aid because the world is distracted by Iraq, the World Food Programme has warned.