The coalition warhead gutted the top floor of the 11-storey information ministry, from where Saddam Hussein's regime runs its propaganda machine and maintains strict control over the media.

No one was reported injured but the force of the blast, at a time when the high-rise is usually empty, was felt down to the ground floor where water pipes burst.

Satellite dishes on the roof were also damaged as the capital was pounded by heavy bombardment. Iraq's state-run Internet service provider is housed on the 11th floor.

"The ministry of information in Baghdad was targetted by Tomahawk missiles early today (March 29)," US Central Command announced in a statement.

"Official battle damage assessment is not yet available," it said, but noted television pictures showed extensive damage.

State television, however, was still on the air Saturday, broadcasting footage, often set to music, of Iraqis praising Saddam and vowing victory over the US-led coalition. The compound that houses state television had also been attacked Wednesday.

In the international press centre, which gives onto the street, windows were blown out.

In AFP's office the plate glass wall was shattered and two television sets were strewn across the floor. Telephone lines and other equipment were ripped out of their sockets by the blast.

Most journalists have avoided the press centre at night.

The higher floors of the building, near the Tigris river, also house the office of Information Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahhaf who has been the public face of Iraq's propaganda effort in the war.

Debris was scattered across the street surrounding the building, home to the official Iraqi News Agency.

Loud blasts rocked Baghdad repeatedly through the morning. Anti-aircraft defences swung into action as explosions rocked the capital of five million people around 11:15 am (0815 GMT).

No air sirens were sounded, however, before the blasts, which followed airstrikes on Baghdad's outskirts. The main presidential palace in central Baghdad was also targetted in an attack late Friday.

Some 38 people were killed and 80 wounded in the repeated bombings Friday.

At least 30 of the dead were killed in a single strike on a market, hospital officials said -- the largest reported loss of civilian life in the capital since the war began.

The attack came after the fiercest US-led air strikes to date battered the Baghdad area with bombs and cruise missiles earlier Friday, hammering communications sites and crack troops guarding the city that Iraq vows is impregnable.

The massive raids reached a new intensity as the United States and Britain acknowledged that hopes were fading of a quick victory in the war to topple President Saddam Hussein.

It was impossible to verify the exact toll of the air raid on An-Nasser market in the Shiite Muslim neighbourhood of Al-Shula in northwestern Baghdad on what was the second weekly Muslim day of rest since the US-led war was launched on March 20.

The Iraqi information ministry said only that a "large number" of civilians had been killed and injured.

Just two days ago missiles crashed into a housing block in a working class neighbourhood of the capital, killing 14, amid mounting accusations that the US-led coalition is bombing the capital with little regard for civilian life.

"Most of the victims are women, children and old people," Dr. Haqi Razzuqi, head of An-Nur hospital, told AFP, adding that most of the injured were in a serious condition.

Razzuqi said there was no military target in the area around the market, close to the hospital.

US officials have in turn charged Saddam's regime with placing legitimate military targets such as weapons and munitions in the heart of civilian areas.

WAR.WIRE