"The whole Iraqi people, including its women, will transform themselves into fedayeen (martyrdom fighters)," Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan told a Baghdad press conference.

"Anybody who carries out a martyrdom operation does not need orders" he said.

He also warned more attacks would be forthcoming. "This is only a beginning and you will hear good news in the coming days. We will use any means to stop the enemy and kill the enemy."

State television said Ali Jaafar Musa Hammadi al-Numani was the man who had blown himself up in a taxi at a US army checkpoint near the holy city of Najaf, claiming 11 soldiers had been killed.

US forces said four of its soldiers died in the attack.

Numani wanted to "teach the invaders a lesson in the same manner of our Palestinian martyrdom fighters" who have carried out suicide attacks against Israel, the television said.

"After kissing the holy Koran" he "drove a booby-trapped car toward enemy tanks and armoured personnel at the outskirts of Najaf," the television report said. "This is a blessed start."

Numani was posthumously awarded two medals of honour, it said, including the Decoration of Umm al-Maarek or the Mother of All Battles, as Baghdad calls the 1991 Gulf War.

Saturday's attack comes amid growing calls by clerics both in Iraq and other Muslim countries for a holy war against the invaders, signaled a new threat against US-led forces already struggling with Iraqi guerrilla tactics.

In the port of Umm Qasr, now held by coalition troops, five Iraqi deserters said militiamen fiercely loyal to Saddam in the city of Basra were telling soldiers they would be shot if they did not carry out suicide hits.

"They are forcing us to ride motorbikes carrying explosives. We have to ride them into American or British positions," one 19-year-old said speaking through an interpreter.

"If we don't we were told we would be shot."

The deserters refused to give their names, for fear of reprisals. There have been no reports of any attempted suicide attacks in Basra.

Another of the deserters said that ruling Baath party loyalists had set up checkpoints within Basra, which has been besieged by British forces.

A special death squad had been set up to execute any regular soldiers who try to flee, he said.

The group spoke to journalists at the gates of a coalition compound where they were waiting to be taken into the custody of British soldiers.

burs/ben

WAR.WIRE