As American forces consolidate their grip on Baghdad, two satellites named Micron and Trumpet circling the globe at 14,000mph are at the frontline of the effort to block Iraq President Saddam Hussein's hopes of escaping.

United States special forces operating in tandem with more conventional military units hope these two advanced spy satellites will ultimately lead them to their most cherished prize.

They have intercepted calls and walkie-talkie transmissions from Iraqi military sites, pinpointed the position of Hussein's motorcade, and even photographed movement within his palaces.

As the war enters its final stages, satellite technology still offers special forces the best chance of tracking down Hussein and members of his inner circle.

During the first Gulf war in 1991, Hussein moved daily to avoid more than 250 allied air strikes on 'leadership targets'. This time American officials hope that monitoring his use of satellite and mobile phones will provide clues to his whereabouts.

"Tracking a tyrant as concerned about his personal security as Saddam is challenging, to say the least," according to one US expert who did not want to be named. "One either has to have an intelligence break on his movement that is actionable or maintain continuous surveillance on him, which is very unlikely."

It is no secret that the US has undertaken a vigorous military and intelligence effort to track Hussein and his aides. Starting from last September it is understood that nearly 250 US and British special forces personnel and more than 60 Central Intelligence Agency operatives conducted reconnaissance missions in Iraq's deserts and outside its major cities.

At 35,000ft above Iraq, a converted Boeing 707 has also been flying upto 10 hours a day every day, recording the conversations of top Iraqi officials and pinpointing the location of those calls to within a mile.

According to Wafiq al-Sammarai, former chief of Iraq's military intelligence who defected to the West in 1994, Hussein will be more than aware of the special forces teams assigned to track him down.

"Saddam knows American special forces are drawing in on him," Sammarai said, "but he has been living with the threat of assassination attempts for decades. His contingency plans will make it very difficult for him to be captured. It is well known that he uses doubles who often travel in motorcades. In many ways, he rules from the shadows and doesn't even use his presidential palaces with any regularity.

"He is one of the most paranoid, but also one of the best-defended, leaders in the world. He will make it hard, maybe even impossible, for America to get him."

According to military experts, Hussein's expected response, assuming that he survives, is also becoming discernible. Although he has well-equipped underground bunkers in Baghdad, he is expected to use his most loyal forces to defend him in his home town Tikrit, 100 miles north of Baghdad, where most of his remaining power is concentrated.

According to Sammarai, "In the hunt for Saddam the Americans know that even the Republican Guard may not be loyal. So the apparent movement of his core protection units towards Tikrit is particularly significant.

"Saddam's last stand could take place in his family's ancestral home, since that would make him a legend in the Arab world. Tikrit also has the advantage of being in the Sunni Arab heartland, far from the Kurds in the north and the Shias in the south."

He added, "Saddam's closest allies, including relatives, tribal loyalists and others, face jail or death should the dictator be toppled. They will fight to the death. The people in the Special Republican Guard have been drawn from Saddam's own village. The people have ties to him by tribe and clan and a lot to lose if he is overthrown."

What happens if coalition forces do capture the president of Iraq alive is still unclear. Last year the US launched a campaign to indict him for war crimes, lobbying for the creation of an international court that would put Hussein, his two sons, and at least nine members of his inner circle on trial.

Washington is believed to have set aside £100 million for a special court and has given £2 million of that to US war crimes investigators who are gathering testimony from prominent Iraqi exiles.

Fortunately for investigators, the ruling Ba'ath party is obsessive in its documentation. Some 5.5 million pages of documents captured in Kurdistan and stored at the University of Colorado in Boulder make chilling reading.

Among them is a document signed by Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed aka 'Chemical' Ali, authorising the Anfal operation that killed tens of thousands of Kurds. Ali is believed to have been killed during the recent attack on Basra by British forces.