BAGHDAD (AFP) - The US military dug its heels in Sunday, confronting an enemy widening its tactics, with more than 200 US troops now killed in the war to oust Saddam Hussein and the campaign to rebuild Iraq.

Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, said Sunday that "chances of catching Saddam are very high. We will catch him."

"There's no doubt that the fact that we had not been able to show his face allows these remnants of that Baathist regime to (say) ... we will come back, so don't cooperate with the coalition," Bremer told BBC television.

Bremer's remarks come amid mounting armed resistance to the US-led coalition from militiamen still loyal to Saddam.

An Iraqi civilian was killed and two US soldiers were wounded early Sunday when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device on a highway in Baghdad, a US military spokesman told AFP.

The condition of the two US soldiers, who were transfered to a military hospital, was not known, he said.

US troops also came under rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) attack overnight in the flashpoint town of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, witnesses told AFP. There was no word on casualties.

A US army spokesman said he was unable to confirm the attack, the third reported in four days in Fallujah which has been tense since US troops shot dead at least 16 people at a demonstration in late April.

The discovery on Saturday of the remains of two US soldiers believed abducted and killed by Fedayeen militia still loyal to the ousted Baathist regime pushed over 200 the US death toll from combat and accidents since war broke out on March 20.

The soldiers' missing Humvee light armoured vehicle had been recovered northwest of Baghdad -- in the heartland of Saddam's supporters -- while their personal effects were discovered in a house search, the military said Sunday.

The deaths came as a further blow to US troops trying to rebuild the country and already faced with almost daily shootings and grenade attacks.

"Virtually every day there has been an attack of some form against coalition soldiers," Major William Thurmond told AFP, adding: "There are people in Iraq who do not want the coalition to succeed."

"There is definitely a small number of very committed people, former Baathists, who do not have a place in the Iraq that's coming and they have an interest in seeing to it that we have a difficult time doing our mission."

Another senior military official said that Iraq was still being treated as a war zone, despite US President George W. Bush declaring major combat operations over almost two months ago on May 1.

"The war is not over. What we do have is Saddam Fedayeen and Baathist leadership out there that is attempting to disrupt the coalition's efforts," he said, while describing them as working in "fragmented, small cells."

But Bremer said Saturday cooperation was increasing and that Iraqis were providing information concerning a spate of recent political sabotage attacks that have hit power and water supplies particularly in Baghdad.

"We have received more knocks on our door with people ready to provide tips about the whereabouts of former senior Baathists," he said.

The campaign to snare former regime members has netted 900 former loyalists of the ousted Baath Party regime within the past week, a senior coalition official said Saturday, asking not to be identified.

He said some of those arrested had been released, but did not specify how many were still being held.

"On the high value targets we are steadily collecting the 55 key regime figures with over 30 collected so far," he said, adding: "There is no doubt in my mind that we will be able to pick up the remainder."

Meanwhile, in the southern port city of Basra, hundreds of Iraqi ex-soldiers mounted an angry protest at British headquarters early Sunday to demand back wages, later dispersing after striking a deal, military sources said.

"The payment will take place Tuesday," a British officer told AFP.

After threats of armed insurrection in Baghdad, the US-led coalition said last week that it would begin regular payments to members of the disbanded army, backtracking on plans to give former soldiers a one-off payment.