British intelligence believe Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein survived the US attack on a building in Baghdad on Monday afternoon.

The fate of his sons Uday and Qusay, who were also reportedly in the building, is not known.

'He was probably not in the building when it was bombed,' one intelligence source quoted in Britain's The Guardian newspaper said.

An American B-1 bomber dropped four 2,000 pound bombs on the building after US intelligence received information that Saddam was meeting his sons there.

The Times, London, said MI6, the British intelligence agency, told the CIA it believes Saddam left the building in Baghdad's al-Mansour district just before the bombs hit.

But Saddam has not been seen in public after Monday's attack nor has Iraqi television broadcast fresh images of the Iraqi president.