Intelligence officials had identified al-Iraqi several weeks ago with help from "somebody inside the al-Zarqawi network," Caldwell said.

"Through a painstaking intelligence effort, we were able to start tracking him, monitor his movements and establish when he was doing his linkup with al-Zarqawi," he said.

Air Force Lt. Gen. Gary L. North, who commands US and coalition air operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said al-Zarqawi's meeting in the house gave commanders time to gather exact coordinates and redirect the fighters, which were already in the air.

"We knew exactly where he was and we chose the right moment," North told The Associated Press.

In the final two weeks of the manhunt, Caldwell indicated US and Iraqi forces had pinpointed the location of many other key al-Qaida figures but had held off for fear of spooking their boss. After al-Zarqawi was killed, US and Iraqi forces carried out 17 raids in the Baghdad region, he said.

What may have partly enabled the success now after so long was Khalilzad's efforts to patch up relations with Sunnis.

At the same time, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, who was sensitive to US-encouraged derision of a foreigner killing Iraqis, began cozying up to Sunni insurgents. It was probably the move that led to his undoing, said Ed O'Connell, a retired Air Force intelligence officer who led manhunts for Osama bin Laden and others in Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen.

"Once that happened, all we needed was a guy inside the insurgency to tell us where he was and, bam, we got him," he said.

The airstrike occurred in the village of Hibhib, which is known for producing anise-flavored arak, a popular alcoholic drink.

The region had seen a spike in gruesome sectarian killings in recent days, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. Not far away this week, gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.

Al-Zarqawi was known for his extraordinary brutality as one of the extremist leaders in the largely Sunni Arab insurgency, earning him the title of "the slaughtering sheik" among his followers. He is believed to have wielded the huge knives used in beheading American hostages Nicholas Berg and Eugene Armstrong. Grisly videos of the slayings were posted on the Internet, part of the propaganda campaign that was key to al-Zarqawi's movement.

His followers were believed responsible for the deaths of thousands of Iraqi Shiites, mainly in a campaign of roadside bombings and suicide attacks.

In the past year, he moved his campaign beyond Iraq's borders, claiming to have carried out a triple suicide bombing against hotels in Amman, Jordan, that killed 60 people, as well as other attacks in his homeland and even a rocket attack from Lebanon into Israel.

Caldwell said Egyptian-born Abu al-Masri would likely take the reins of al-Qaida in Iraq. He said al-Masri trained in Afghanistan and arrived in Iraq in 2002 to establish an al-Qaida cell.

Buoyed by his announcement of al-Zarqawi's death, al-Maliki won parliamentary approval for three important ministers - ending a three-week stalemate.

The new defense minister is Army Gen. Abdul-Qader Mohammed Jassim al-Mifarji, a Sunni Arab, while Shiite Jawad al-Bolani took over the Interior post. The new minister of state for national security, Sherwan al-Waili, who will advise the prime minister, also is a Shiite.

Police in Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City greeted news of al-Zarqawi's death by firing weapons into the air and chanting in elation.

But al-Zarqawi was mourned in Anbar province.

"This a great loss for all the Sunnis," 40-year-old Abid al-Duleimi said. "If they killed al-Zarqawi, more than one al-Zarqawi will replace him."

Zarqawi death won't weaken war - Mullah Omar

Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar vowed that the killing in Iraq of al Qaeda militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi would not weaken Muslim efforts against "crusader forces", a Pakistan-based news agency said on Friday.

In one of the most significant developments in Iraq since the capture of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Jordanian-born Zarqawi was killed on Wednesday in a U.S. airstrike on a "safe house" north of Baghdad.

"I give good news to Muslims around the world, the resistance against the crusader forces in Afghanistan and other parts of the Islamic world will not be weakened," the Afghan Islamic Press cited Omar as saying in a statement.

The news agency did not say how it had obtained the purported statement from the fugitive Omar who, like al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding out somewhere along the rugged Afghan-Pakistani border.

Zarqawi's killing will inevitably focus attention on the hunt for bin Laden, nearly five years after the September 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent overthrew of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.

The Taliban have been fighting U.S. and other foreign troops and the Western-backed Afghan government ever since.

Bin Laden called Zarqawi, who was in his late 30s, the prince of al Qaeda in Iraq, and he came to symbolise the radical Islamist insurgency against U.S. occupation.

Omar said he and "all the brothers of the sacred resistance movement in Afghanistan" express deep sorrow over the death.

MANY TO FOLLOW

"Zarqawi's martyrdom will not weaken the resistance movement in Iraq. Many, many more young men can become Zarqawi," Omar said. "The successors ... can be even stronger than him."

Zarqawi inspired a flood of militants from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in suicide missions in Iraq.

Afghanistan's Taliban have copied the tactic, launching a wave of suicide attacks against foreign and Afghan government troops, and helping push the level of violence in Afghanistan in recent months to its worst levels since they were ousted.

"As long as crusader forces continue their attacks on the Islamic world, every young man of the Ummah (Muslim world) will fight to defend the faith," Omar said.

A Pakistani security analyst said Zarqawi's death would not weaken the Taliban insurgency, and could incite more violence.

"I fear revenge killings, not only in Iraq but maybe in Afghanistan or Pakistan," said author Ahmed Rashid.

"Zarqawi had following all around the world, there may be action taken by sympathisers anywhere.

CALL FOR PRAYERS

In Pakistan on Friday, where militants such as Zarqawi and bin Laden have considerable support, a member of an opposition alliance of Islamist parties asked the speaker of the lower house of parliament for permission to say prayers for Zarqawi.

Zarqawi had been fighting for his rights, said the politician, Farid Ahmed Piracha.
But the speaker, Chaudhry Amir Hussain, declined the request, switching off Piracha's microphone.

Another member of the alliance of conservative religious parties asked the speaker to allow prayers for Zarqawi's spiritual adviser, Sheikh Abdul-Rahman, and others killed in the airstrike on Zarqawi. Hussain ruled that out.

"There are a number of people who are martyred around the world and I don't want to create controversy by allowing prayers," Hussain said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters that 10 people, including Zarqawi, had been killed in the strike on a "safe house" near the city of Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad.