In the troubled western city of Falluja, an assailant fired at least one rocket-propelled grenade at American troops, killing a soldier and wounding five, the US military and residents.

A US military spokesman said two American soldiers were also wounded in Baghdad when two attackers fired on them as they were guarding a bank.

The Falluja attack took place as the United States sent more than 3,000 extra soldiers and dozens of tanks to crack down on gunmen in the Sunni Muslim city west of Baghdad, roughly doubling the number of troops deployed in the area.

Eight weeks after deposing Saddam, US and British forces have struggled to impose their grip on the capital and other parts of Iraq. They have found no weapons of mass destruction.

"We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth," Bush told cheering US troops at a base in Qatar.

A US-run radio station in Baghdad appealed to Iraqis to help find the missing arsenal.

The failure to find the banned weapons, cited by London and Washington as the main reason for the war, has fueled a political storm, especially in Britain.

"Everybody who has taken part in developing, storing, moving and acquiring weapons of mass destruction should provide coalition forces with information," said the US-run radio.

The United States and its allies are sending more experts to Iraq to join the hunt, but have largely shut out the previous U.N. arms teams in a stance challenged by opponents of the war such as Russia and France.

(China Daily June 6, 2003)