Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Said Al-Sahhaf has said that more than 500 civilians were wounded and more than 200 homes destroyed by US and British bombardments in Nasiriya.
Fierce battles have been reported between Iraqi and coalition forces as they moved across the Euphrates river in Nasiriya. The assault is aimed at opening up a route north to Baghdad.
The Pentagon has said that a major firefight took place between US and Iraqi forces during the advance to Baghdad, which resulted in up to 300 Iraqis being killed.
However, according to a US army intelligence officer near Najaf, the number of Iraqis killed is closer to 650.
No US casualties were reported in the fighting which took place between Kerbala and Najaf, about 100 miles south of the capital.
According to a Pentagon official, it was possibly the largest ground engagement of the war to date.
Reports say confrontation also took place at the town of Ash Shatrah, 25 miles north of Nasiriya, where Marines had crossed the Euphrates river yesterday after fierce fighting.
US claim chemical suits found in Nasiriya
US army officials in Qatar say they have confiscated more than 3,000 chemical suits and masks from a hospital in the southern Iraqi city of Nasiriya that had been used by Iraqi paramilitaries.
Marines seized the hospital on Tuesday, which according to Colonel Ron Johnson had served as a storehouse for weapons used by Iraqi fighters dressed in civilian clothes.
In addition to the chemical suits, they found more than 200 weapons, stores of ammunition and Iraqi military uniforms, and captured around 170 prisoners in the operation, the statement issued by the US Central Command in Qatar said.
It was also reported that large quantities of a nerve gas antidote, atropine, were found. However, atropine can also be used for treating heart patients and some respiratory conditions.
US forces had been fired on from the hospital in fighting with Iraqi forces in the city on Monday, it added.
Iraqi television unstable
Iraq's international satellite television channel came back on air this morning, hours after an air raid that US officials said targeted television and satellite facilities in Baghdad.
The 24-hour channel, monitored in Dubai, resumed broadcasting at 9.20am with patriotic songs. It had ceased broadcasting at the time of the raids.
Iraq's domestic television channel, a major link between President Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people, is also back on air.
It closed down overnight and had been off-air at the time of the raid.
State radio is also broadcasting normally.
