WASHINGTON, 1 April 2003 — The Pentagon’s top military and civilian officials indicated Sunday that an all-out ground offensive against the Iraqi capital will not take place until conditions are more favorable to US forces.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Richard Myers said that a major attack on Baghdad remained part of the US war plan. They denied reports that a pause in the rush toward the city had been ordered while southern Iraq is pacified, lengthy US supply lines are secured, and reinforcements arrive to bolster troops now halted about 50 miles outside the capital.

But in appearances on television talk shows, both emphasized that the battle for Baghdad would be far tougher than any military engagement yet, and would come only when US forces were ready. “There are difficult days ahead,’’ Rumsfeld said. “Baghdad is not going to be easy.’’

Myers acknowledged that US positions outside of Baghdad are now stationary, saying that “it may be an operational pause in a macro sense.’’ But he said US forces would continue to pressure Iraqi Revolutionary Guards deployed between them and the city, with “armed reconnaissance’’ and an air war that Rumsfeld said would go on for weeks.

The strategy could not properly be called a “siege,’’ Myers said, noting that the term “conjures up sometimes some really bad images. It will not be a sort of siege that...I think people have thought about before. And we’ll just have to see. We don’t know that is going to be the case.’’

Of timing, he said: “We can afford to be patient. We’re not going to commit our sons and daughters to battle until the odds are distinctly in our favor, and at a time and place of our choosing. Then we’ll take the fight to the enemy.’’

The question of how and when to attack Baghdad was discussed at a meeting Saturday of President Bush and his senior military and national security advisers at Camp David, convened after a number of US field commanders questioned whether a pause was needed to regroup and reinforce their troops after the lightning push toward the city. A senior official said after the meeting that Bush had agreed with Rumsfeld to move aggressively on Baghdad, although it was unclear whether a specific timetable had been discussed.

It was possible, Rumsfeld said Sunday, that British forces would continue to be engaged in battling Iraqi forces in the southern city of Basra, where they had earlier hoped to be greeted by a jubilant populace after a largely peaceful entry. Asked whether Basra and other southern cities where US forces are in difficult combat would have to be secured before a direct attack on Baghdad, Rumsfeld said: “Look, those are decisions that Gen. Franks makes...He’s got a very good plan, and he’s executing it.’’ Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, is in charge of the overall operation.

It was the second week in a row that Rumsfeld and Myers were on the Sunday talk show circuit, with Rumsfeld appearing on Fox News Sunday and ABC’s “This Week,’’ and Myers on CBS’s “Face the Nation,’’ NBC’s “Meet the Press’’ and CNN’s “Late Edition.’’

The administration has been fighting a defensive battle against expectations of a relatively quick victory following an early collapse of Iraqi forces under massive US assault. Assailed with questions about whether the war plan was insufficient and would now be changed, both Rumsfeld and Myers insisted Sunday that the plan was sound and victory was assured.

Both rejected arguments, many from current and retired military officers, that the Pentagon was scrambling to rush reinforcements to a war that was started with inadequate ground forces. Rumsfeld said reports that he had overruled military planners who favored a more robust force were “fiction’’ spread by “second guessers.’’ He emphasized that Franks was the author of the war plan, and that it had been approved by the joint chiefs, the National Security Council and Bush. Rumsfeld and Myers said the plan was broadly written, to allow for any eventuality. “One of the bookends on this plan was ‘Let’s be ready for catastrophic success,’”Myers said. “The other bookend was ‘This is going to be a long, tough fight.’ Somewhere on that spectrum is probably where this will settle out.’’