"Fired by America for telling the truth... Hired by Daily Mirror to carry on telling it," read the headline on the tabloid's front page Tuesday.

"I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologise for it," Arnett told the daily.

"I have always admired your newspaper and am proud to be working for it."

Famed for his coverage of the Vietnam War and the first Gulf war, Arnett was sacked by NBC on Monday, and later also let go by National Geographic.

Arnett's comments, broadcast this past weekend by Iraqi television, said that Washington's "first war plan has just failed because of Iraqi resistance."

"Clearly the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces," Arnett, 68, told Iraqi journalists.

His comments met with severe criticism in the United States, with some accusing him of aiding the Iraqis.

Displaying a sense of humour, Arnett, a naturalised American, wrote in the Daily Mirror that he was in "shock and awe" over his sacking. "Shock and awe" is the term used by Washington to describe the heavy bombing of Baghdad.

"I am still in shock and awe at being fired... Now I am really shocked that I am no longer reporting this story for the US and awed by the fact that it actually happened."

Arnett said there was an "enormous sensitivity" within the US government to reports coming out from Baghdad.

"They don't want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems," he said in the Mirror.

Arnett admitted to making a "misjudgement" but said that after interviewing hundreds of people in Iraq during the past four months, "it was only professional courtesy to give them a few comments."

He added: "We have to watch the reality now and some Iraqis are fighting and the government does seem very determined. For me to see that and to be criticised for saying the obvious is unfair."

Arnett said he believed great commercial pressure was responsible for his sacking, but did not blame the White House for his departure.

He added that he would decide later Tuesday whether to stay on in Baghdad.

"But whatever happens I will never stop reporting on the truth of this war whether I am in Baghdad or somewhere else in the Middle East -- or even back in Washington."

Arnett, who has been in the news business for 40 years, was already fired by CNN for his involvement in a 1998 story on Operation Tailwind, which alleged that American forces used nerve gas in a 1970 mission to hunt down US defectors during the Vietnam War.

That story was vigorously denied by US military officials, and ultimately was retracted by CNN.

The reporter who was one of a handful of western journalists to stay in the Iraqi capital during the 1991 war had initially said he had no immediate plans for his future. "There's a small island in the South Pacific, uninhabited, which I will try to swim to," he quippped.

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