WASHINGTON, (Reuters): THE UNITED States held off from a victory dance at the fall of Baghdad on Wednesday but top officials could not resist some gloating and sniping at those who questioned the war plan. "In the early days of the war the plan was criticised by some retired military officers embedded in TV studios," Vice President Dick Cheney said. "But with every day and every advance by our coalition forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent." A wave of euphoria swept through the administration as President George W. Bush and others tuned in to dramatic television images of Saddam Hussein's statue being toppled and the severed head dragged away by jubilant Iraqis. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sounded like a man vindicated during a briefing at the Pentagon. "Tomorrow will mark three weeks since Operation Iraqi Freedom began, and the progress of the men and women in uniform who make up the coalition forces has been nothing short of spectacular," Rumsfeld said. He could not resist some chest-thumping. FAILED BRUTAL DICTATORS "Saddam Hussein is now taking his rightful place alongside Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Ceausescu in the pantheon of failed brutal dictators, and the Iraqi people are well on their way to freedom," he said. US officials did not declare victory because Iraq is not secure from Baghdad up north to the Kurdish-controlled part of the country, including Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. Saddam's whereabouts remained unknown after a bombing attack on Monday, and US officials said finding out what happened to him was important. "The war is not over," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. POST-WAR PLANS But officials were turning their attention to the post-war phase. US national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the United States was trying to preserve Iraqi government documents that could be used to prosecute members of Saddam's administration. In an interview with ABC News radio on Wednesday, Rice said Washington had established rewards for Iraqis who led them to Iraqi documents or who preserved documents on Iraq's chemical and biological weapons. Officials also hoped to avoid another battle within the UN Security Council like the one that preceded the war. "That's history, that's behind us now,' said Cheney. "It's time for us to get on with business and do what we set out to do in Iraq originally." Fleischer expressed scepticism about a meeting this weekend in Moscow of French President Jacques Chirac, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder - leaders of the major opponents of the Iraq war. He said their position that the United Nations alone should oversee Iraqi reconstruction was an "exclusionary notion." "This is about the Iraqi people first. And that would be a nice message to hear from Moscow," he said. European and Arab governments have called for the United Nations to play the lead role in Iraqi reconstruction, which the United States is resisting. Cheney said the military authority to oversee Iraq in the immediate post-war period, led by retired Gen. Jay Garner, would root out Saddam cronies of his Baath Party. The United States was setting up a meeting in southern Iraq sometime after Saturday between a US delegation and Iraqis, the first in a series of regional meetings aimed at establishing the Iraqi Interim Authority that will lead the country until an elected government is formed. "We hope that these meetings will culminate in a conference to be held in Baghdad and the conference can form the Iraqi Interim Authority," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi said the United States had identified about 43 Iraqis - 14 former exiles and about 29 from inside the country - to take part in the meeting. Boucher said the meeting should not be described as a "coronation" for Chalabi and Fleischer said his was "one name of many who yearn for a free Iraq." The CIA has said it does not consider Chalabi a credible Iraqi leader, although the US military flew him to Nassiriya on Sunday, giving his group a head start over other Arab opposition groups in establishing a political presence under US protection.