The state television began broadcasting verses from the Koran at9 a.m. local time (0600 GMT), three hours after the airstrike.

Black smoke was seen rising from the area near the Information Ministry and the state television buildings after a huge explosion occurred there at around 5 a.m. (0200 GMT).

The state television, which usually does not broadcast overnight and was off the air at the time of the bombing, has been operating with only intermittent outages during the first week of the US-British air raids.

Meanwhile, Iraq's satellite TV channel, which broadcasts 24 hours a day globally, has not resumed operation after it was knocked off the air by the latest bombing.

Earlier, a US Pentagon official was quoted as saying in Washington that US and British forces did strike the Iraqi television building in the latest airstrikes.

The Wednesday strike was reportedly aimed at "damaging Iraqi regime's command and control capability" by eliminating the system Iraqi President Saddam Hussein uses to communicate with the Iraqi people and troops.

The Iraqi television angered the US officials by broadcasting the images of some killed and captured US soldiers last week, which the US and British governments denounced as a violation of international laws.

The Iraqi government widely uses the television to rally people against the US-led invasion through broadcasting official news conferences and reading Saddam's statements.

(Xinhua News Agency March 26, 2003)