United States President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday declared that their coalition forces were 'advancing day by day' through Iraq.

The two, meeting for the first time in Washington after US-led coalition forces attacked Iraq last Thursday, said at a joint news conference that the United Nations' 'oil-for-food' programme should be restored.

"Saddam Hussein and his hateful regime will be removed from power," Blair said at the US president's Camp David retreat.

"Iraq will be disarmed of weapons of mass destruction, and the Iraqi people will be freed. That is our commitment. That is our determination, and we will see it done," Blair added.

Blair said he and Bush had decided to seek new UN resolutions on humanitarian relief and a post-war administration for Iraq.

They also promised to keep Iraq's territorial boundaries intact.

Asked whether the war would last for months, Bush said, "However long it takes to win. However long it takes to achieve our objective. It is not a matter of time table, it's a matter of victory."

Bush said, "The grip of terror around the throats of the Iraqi people is being loosened.

"We are now engaging the dictator's most hardened and most desperate units. The campaign ahead will demand further courage and sacrifice, yet we know the outcome."

In decades of repression, said Bush, the Iraqi regime had sought to instil fear among its people.

Iraqis, not outsiders, will choose the government in post-Saddam Iraq, he added.

"The prime minister and I," said Bush, "are confident that a free Iraq will be a successful nation."