The ground war to capture Baghdad should begin by Tuesday with no plan for coalition troops to get bogged down fighting in Iraq's second city of Basra, a British defense source said on Sunday. "We're looking toward Monday night, Tuesday for the ground offensive on Baghdad," the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "The important thing is not to take Basra but to get through it and get to the north. We won't get into fighting in downtown Basra."

Iraqi Forces Resist U.S.-British Advance on Basra

U.S. and British tank units advanced on the southern city of Basra on Sunday, where Iraqi forces fought back to keep them out of the city, Reuters correspondents said, quoting soldiers in the area.

Group Captain Al Lockwood, the main British spokesman at the Qatar command headquarters of U.S.-British forces in the Gulf, said the battle for Iraq's second city was not yet over.

One military official, said about 30 Iraqi soldiers were holding out in one area of Basra. "We're hearing there's isolated pockets of resistance," the official said.

The extent of casualties and just who controlled what in the city were not immediately clear.

PHOTO CAPTION

A British soldier keeps watch in southern Iraq. Coalition troops fighting near the southern Iraqi port city of Umm Qasr are encountering small groups of elite Iraqi troops who still "fight fiercely", the commander of British forces in the Gulf said.(AFP-Pool/Dan Chung)