Despite defeat he declared himself the winner of the "mother of all battles" - and he remained in power.

BBC: Saddam Hussein: US target

"We will launch the mother of all battles against corruption and poverty, " he told FORBES a few weeks before taking office.

FORBES: Magazine Article

It was a flame that spearheaded one of the greatest open desert battles in Desert Shield and Desert Storm and led the way as those rockets and missiles from Apaches and MLRS and our strike forces went across and defeated what was supposed to be the mother of all battles.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Keeping "the flame" burning

So they could have done without this week's reminder that soon they will be embroiled in the mother of all financial battles over what to do about all the debt piled up by Saddam Hussein's regime.

ECONOMIST: Should those who lent to Saddam get their money back?

Despite the militant symbolism of the setting, known in Mr Hussein's time as the Mother-of-All-Battles mosque, the meeting's message was pragmatic.

ECONOMIST: Iraq's Sunni Arabs