In other parts of the capital, Baghdadis tore up a giant portrait of Saddam, men brandished Kalashnikov rifles as they signalled their delight at the regime crumbling, while one white-haired man was seen laughing as he repeatedly hit at a poster of Saddam with a sandal.
City residents, hardened after almost 13 years of crippling economic sanctions, started looting symbols of Saddam's power, notably the irrigation and interior ministries and the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, run by Saddam's elder son Uday.
US troops, moving up the eastern bank of the Tigris, approached the center of the capital, where they were expected to join units controlling the western side of the river, witnesses said.
Marines had seized Baghdad's eastern zone, though Iraqi snipers were still posing problems, a US military official said.
Allied warplanes still flew over the capital as smoke filled the skies, bringing air support to ground troops moving through the east and north of Baghdad where Iraqi forces had abandoned positions.
Dozens of Iraqi and Arab fighters in civilian clothing were still holed up behind buildings or in sandbagged positions on the western side of the Al-Jumhurya bridge spanning the river Tigris.
"Baghdad has not fallen and will never fall," said Mohammed al-Dahruj, a 24-year-old Syrian who volunteered to fight US-led forces.
At Sulaymaniya in the north of the country, streets erupted into a carnival atmosphere as tens of thousands of Kurds danced and sang at the news that US tanks controlled the center of Baghdad.
In southern Iraq, Basra was not yet totally under British control, Blair said.
"It is not secure for our troops yet, fully," he said. "[But it is] more under control today than it was yesterday."
Nothing has been heard from Saddam since a US bomber on Monday obliterated the building in Baghdad where he was believed to be with his two sons.
Major General Stanley McChrystal, with the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the air strike had been "very, very effective," but it was not known if the targets were still alive.
The Times of London said British intelligence believed Saddam had left the targeted building just before it was bombed.
The Washington Times quoted a US official as saying that US intelligence was "in a state of euphoria" because "there is no doubt he [Saddam] is dead."
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