Hospital sources said 30 people had been killed and 47 wounded in the raid on Al-Nasser market, adding that there was no obvious military target nearby.

"Most of the victims are women, children and old people," Dr Harqi Razzuqi, head of An-Nur hospital, told AFP.

Arab television stations showed horrific footage of bodies in a morgue, including children, which it said were victims of the raid.

The Iraqi information ministry gave no exact figures but said a "large number" of civilians had been killed and wounded in the attack at around 6:30 pm (1530 GMT).

A new wave of heavy bombardment hit the capital after nightfall on Friday, after a day of furious air attacks from US-led forces.

The coalition moved Friday to consolidate its positions on the ground as the White House rejected claims it had misjudged Iraqi resolve and insisted the war was "on track."

A British ship carrying tonnes of urgently needed humanitarian aid meanwhile put into the captured southern Iraqi port of Umm Qasr and the United Nations separately appealed for 2.2 billion dollars to provide urgent help to the people of Iraq.

Friday's air raids on the capital followed a night of what was described by reporters and other witnesses in Baghdad as the heaviest bombardment in and near the Iraqi capital since the war began on March 20.

The sky over Baghdad was black with smoke from burning buildings for much of the day after coalition warplanes and ships took advantage of a break in bad weather to hammer targets inside and near the city with bombs and missiles.

"Visibility was as sweet as a nut," British Flight Lieutenant Ian Townsend said after returning from a raid on Iraqi armor positions outside the city.

"Baghdad has been in fog for the last two days but now it's wide open."

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf put the civilian death toll from the overnight bombing of Baghdad at seven, with 92 wounded.

The southern city of Nasiriyah also came under fresh assault from the air as US and British forces destroyed an Iraqi command post and dropped at least one 2000-pound (900-kilo) bomb there, an AFP photographer in the area reported.

At least 10 explosions were heard in the city, a key Euphrates River crossing point. There was no immediate word on casualties there.

Elsewhere, US warplanes hammered targets including tanks and helicopters between Baghdad and the central city of Karbala thought to be held by a crack armored division of Iraq's Republican Guard, coalition officers said Friday.

Combat jets based on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk dropped Thursday a mixture of 1,000-pound (450-kilo) laser-guided bombs, satellite-guided bombs and 1,000-pound unguided "dumb" bombs, they said.

In northern Iraq, Kurdish rebel forces said they had advanced to within 16 kilometers (10 miles) of the strategic oil city of Kirkuk after clearing scores of anti-tank and anti-personnel mines left behind by retreating Iraqi troops.

A top PUK commander afterwards described the Iraqi army as "finished." Iraqi forces near Kirkuk however quickly made clear the battle there was not over, firing a salvo of around 10 rockets into the town of Chamchamal.

One person was lightly injured in that counter-assault. PUK military sources said earlier that they would consolidate their gains and coordinate with US troops and other Kurdish factions before advancing further.

The territorial gains by the Kurdish rebels in the north came a day after 1,000 US troops were airdropped into the area and amid continuing airborne deployment of hardware including helicopters, fighting vehicles and Humvees.

Ankara, which is concerned about possible Kurdish moves towards independence, urged the United States to take its fears into account.

Ankara said in a statement it was: "determined to take the necessary measures to provide humanitarian aid and prevent massive refugee moves and the outbreak of clashes between different groups in northern Iraq."

US and British army and marine forces that were engaged in several fierce battles on the ground over the past week, mainly around towns in southern Iraq, regrouped Friday and moved to shore up supply lines and current positions.

"The long distances we have travelled make it hard to push that amount of logistics -- water, fuel, ammo and chow -- over the vast area that's been covered," said marine First Lieutenant Tom Elssinger.

"It's definitely a tough animal to rope."

Imams at mosques in many Muslim countries used Friday prayer services to issue fresh calls for resistance to the US-led campaign, while anti-war demonstrations also took place in a number of cities.

Influential US media said the war had run into trouble because of miscalculation and too much restraint, but the White House and US commanders in the the Gulf insisted that all was proceeding according to plan.

US and British forces were having difficulty reaching Baghdad because the administration of President George W. Bush misread the Iraqis," The New York Times said in an analysis.

The Wall Street Journal, which backed Bush in his leadership of the Iraq campaign, said: "The most important lesson we've learned in the first week of the Iraq war is that it's harder to kill a regime than it is to defeat an army."

But the White House rebuffed the criticism.

Bush "believes that... we are making very good progress in the war, it is on track, and he is very satisfied with the results," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters.

A senior Bush aide said the president scorned suggestions that the US-led effort in Iraq was becoming a quagmire. "He thinks it's silly, not borne out by the facts," said the aide, who asked not to be named.

Some critics have charged that US war planners simply did not deploy troops in numbers adequate to fulfill the mission from the start, but Washington said Thursday it was sending another 120,000 soldiers into the field.

On the diplomatic front, the United Nations adopted a resolution allowing the resumption of humanitarian aid for Iraq through its "oil-for-food" program by which proceeds from limited oil sales will be directed to relief efforts.

In its appeal for fresh funds for Iraqi humanitarian assistance, the United Nations said the money was needed to avert a humanitarian crisis over the next six months.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile warned that the US-led war threatened to destabilise international relations to a point not seen since the Cold War.

"Perhaps, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the international community has come up against such a difficult crisis," Putin said in televised remarks to members of the Russian parliament.

"In essence, this threatens to shake the very basis of global stability and international rights."

WAR.WIRE