Fallujah (Iraq): US forces hammered Iraqi insurgents in the city of Fallujah today (April 28, 2004) as President George W Bush vowed to "take whatever action is necessary to secure" the Sunni Muslim bastion.

"Our military commanders will take whatever action is necessary to secure Fallujah on behalf of the Iraqi people," Bush said at the White House after meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson.

US aircraft and helicopters for a second day blasted suspected insurgent positions with missile and machinegun fire as a heavy gunbattle reportedly broke out near the rail station in Fallujah, 50 kilometres West of Baghdad.

Fallujah has been the scene of the fiercest fighting since US-led forces invaded Iraq in March last year at the start of a war which was supported by allies such as Britain and Italy but opposed by France, Germany and others.

Scores of US soldiers have been killed since they laid siege to the city on April 5 after four US civilian contractors were killed in an ambush. The Iraqi Health Ministry says 280 Iraqis have died, including 24 women and 30 children, with 820 wounded, but the toll may be far higher.

Fighter jets and heavily armed AC-130 aircraft could be heard over Fallujah after several marine units, backed by tanks and mortar fire, came under fire from small arms and rocket-propelled grenades.

The air strikes came as the United States appeared to have changed tack after warning that time was running out for the rebels holed up in the city.

Instead of launching an all-out assault, the military said it planned to start joint patrols in the city with Iraqi security forces tomorrow.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, US overseer Paul Bremer met Generals and other high-ranking officers from Iraq's former Army for the first time as he tried to mend fences with marginalised Iraqis since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime a year ago.

Saddam himself was marking his 67th birthday in US custody.