WASHINGTON, March 20: President George W. Bush announced late on Wednesday that the war against Iraq had started and said this would “not be a campaign of half measures”.

“We will accept no outcome but victory,” the US president said, while revealing that coalition forces had already begun “the opening stages of a broad and coercive campaign” against Iraq.

The war began about 90 minutes after the expiration of a 48- hour deadline Mr Bush gave to the Iraqi leader and his two sons on Monday. President Saddam was told to step down or face a US- led military invasion.

“American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger,” Mr Bush said.

In his approximately five-minute address from the Oval Office, Mr Bush cautioned that the war “could be longer ... than some predict.”

The first strikes, he said, were against “selected targets of military importance,” as reports from Iraq suggested that US forces had tried to target President Saddam, acting on intelligence reports about his whereabouts.

Mr Bush said he had ordered coalition forces to strike selected targets of military importance to undermine Iraq’s ability to wage war.

Mr Bush asserted that coalition forces would make every effort to spare innocent civilians from harm. “We come to Iraq with respect for its citizens, for their great civilization, and for the religious faiths they practice. We have no ambition in Iraq except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people,” he said.

The only way to limit the duration of the conflict, Mr Bush said, “is to apply decisive force, and I assure you, this will not be a campaign of half measures, and we will accept no outcome but victory.”

Before announcing the war, Mr Bush chaired a four-hour meeting of his national security advisers, also attended by senior members of his cabinet. Around 6.40pm Washington time — an hour and 20 minutes before his 48-hour deadline for President Saddam to surrender expired — Mr Bush came out of the meeting and asked his speech writer to write his speech.

Mr Bush said the United States would use decisive force to limit the length of the campaign. About 250,000 American, 45,000 British and 2,000 Australian troops were massed in the Persian Gulf to be used against Iraq.