As many parts of the world watched images broadcast of American tanks entering Baghdad's city center while Iraqis cheered and threw shoes at a statue of Saddam, the White House cautioned the American people that the war is not yet over.

"What you're seeing on TV in Baghdad is only that one section of Baghdad," White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer reminded reporters April 9 in his early morning briefing. "There are many dangerous areas in Baghdad for our armed forces that remain. There are many other cities in Iraq that are dangerous ... our men and women remain in harm's way."

"We are still in the middle of a shooting war," he said, adding, "there are other cities that have yet to fall."

Fleischer noted, however, that today is "an historic moment." The scenes seen on television, which later showed U.S. Marines helping Iraqis topple the statue of Saddam, Fleischer said, are "heartening signs of military progress and mankind's taste for freedom."

"It is proof," he said, "of the desire of the Iraqi people to be free. Given the chance to be free, the Iraqi people are taking it."

Fleischer said he had no information on the whereabouts and status of Saddam Hussein following an April 7 attack on what military officials called "a leadership target" where the Iraqi leader was believed to be meeting with his sons and other senior officials.

President Bush, in remarks he made with British Prime Minister Tony Blair April 8 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, said, "I don't know whether he survived. The only thing I know is he's losing power."

Bush is pleased, Fleischer said, "to see progress of the military campaign and the (television) images of the Iraqi people finding freedom." However, he added, "he remains very cautious because he knows that there is great danger that could still lie ahead."

U.S. PLANS MEETING IN IRAQ TO DISCUSS INTERIM IRAQI AUTHORITY

Vice President Cheney, speaking in New Orleans April 9, announced that the United States will soon hold a meeting near al Nasiriyah, in southern Iraq, where "we will bring together representatives of groups from all over Iraq, to begin to sit down and talk about planning for the future with this Iraqi interim authority and getting it up and running."

Cheney originally said the meeting would be held April 12, but his staff later told reporters that the meeting would not take place quite that soon. When the meeting does take place, it will be the first of many such meetings, and will send "a very powerful signal about the future of Iraq, that there are people from both inside and outside Iraq who care about their country and who will be able leaders of their country," he said.

At the White House, Fleischer said "we don't know all the names of all those people yet." The timing of the meeting will depend on a number of factors, "including the security situation on the ground," he added.