Pentagon officials said they had been able to confirm that US air strikes had destroyed or severely damaged only 18 of the 89 targets hits in the first three days of bombing, despite having unleashed more laser-guided Cruise missiles than were used during the 1991 Gulf War.

Early Pentagon assessments indicated that 18 other targets were moderately damaged, eight were lightly damaged, and 12 not damaged at all. Reports for 33 targets were not available.

``We have had some very good success with our strikes, but not all of them have gone exactly as planned,'' Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Hugh Shelton told reporters in the Pentagon in a candid acknowledgment of the relatively modest success achieved by US strikes.

US officials however stressed that they were giving only conservative estimates of the damage this time after the inflatedassessments during Gulf War invited skepticism.

But some of the figures were a dead giveaway about US military ineffectiveness.

According to one assessment, of 27 Iraqi surface-to-air missile facilities targeted, only one was reported ``destroyed'' and two ``severely damaged''; two had light or moderate damage, eight suffered no damage and 14 were listed as still being assessed.

Of 11 facilities hit under the category of ``weapons of mass destruction industry and production'' the Pentagon list showed none destroyed or severely damaged, three with moderate or light damage and eight still being assessed.

The low-strike rate is now forcing a reassessment in Washington as to whether the US will end the air strikes before Ramzan on Sunday, as originally planned.

There is now talk of extending the bombing into the weekend ``complete the task.'' President Clinton is set to receive a briefing today to take a decision. ``We continue to be satisfied by the results, although the strikes are not yet complete,''Defence Secretary William Cohen said at the Pentagon news conference, in the first indication that US forces had not accomplished their full task list in the first three days.

He later said in a television interview that the US was ``sensitive to the issue of Ramzan'' and will take that into account,``but there is no fixed end time.''

Washington's inability to fully decimate Iraqi military and strategic installation has surprised defence analysts here, considering the amount of intelligence it had gathered over the past months and the number and kind of weaponry it has used.

The US campaign does not also appear to have made a dent in Saddam's hold on power.

Some Arab specialists say however that the US wants to keep Saddam alive to use him as a bogeyman to maintain their presense in the Gulf. ``You think they can't finish him if they really want to? Their intelligence agencies have a $29 billion budget,'' a prominent Washington-based Arab commentator said.

US forces have now deployed more than 300Cruise missiles, including 1000-lb. sea-based Tomahawks and the more powerful 2000-lb air-launched missiles. Each Cruise missile costs upwards of $1 million.

In the first detailed briefings about the bombing, US officials said the targets consist primarily the Iraqi dictator's command and control structure, including television and radio transmitters. Officials also acknowledged targeting Basra, one of Iraq's largest oil refineries, although US companies are still one of the biggest buyers of oil from Iraq.

Besides disrupting his command and control structures, Washington has also tried to spread disaffection and dissent among the Iraqi population with a carefully orchestrated propaganda warfare.

A US-sponsored Radio Free Iraq has been beaming news into Iraq, including activities of the Iraqi opposition groups.

US military planes also dropped thousands of leaflets warning Iraqi ground troops against mobilising and threatening them with direct bombing raids if they did.