US Ready for War in Iraq

The US now has sufficient troops and equipment in the Gulf to launch an attack on Iraq at any time, the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, announced today.

"We are at a point where, if the president makes that decision, the department of defence is prepared and has the capabilities and the strategy to do that," he told the US television programme, News Hour America.

Mr Rumsfeld said American and British forces are backed by a "large coalition" in the event of military action, adding: "There will be a lot of countries."

His statement came as the US awaited an answer from Turkey on whether tens of thousands of American troops would be allowed to use Turkish bases to open a northern front against Iraq.

The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said yesterday that he expected a final decision from Turkey by the end of the day.

Turkish and US officials have been in intense negotiations for weeks on the amount of aid Turkey will be offered in exchange for the use of its military bases.

Today, Turkish news reports quoted Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of the country's ruling party, as saying he would allow a free vote of his party's lawmakers on US troop deployment, raising the possibility that a draft could be rejected by parliament.

An overwhelming majority of Turkish citizens are opposed to any war in Iraq, and deputies would have difficulty justifying their decision to back a US deployment to their constituencies.

Mr Erdogan, quoted by the Anatolia news agency, said he would not tell legislators of his governing Justice and Development party how to vote if parliament were asked to authorise the deployment.

"There would be no group decision" on the vote, Anatolia quoted him as saying. But Mr Erdogan said that if a vote were sent to parliament, he hoped "his friends would act toward the authorisation".

Opposition leader Deniz Baykal, who says his party will vote against the deployment, said today that Mr Erdogan's statement meant the draft would likely be rejected by parliament.

Meanwhile, Nato announced that Awacs surveillance planes will fly from their base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, to the Turkish air force base in the central city of Konya in the next few days. The planes are part of Nato's efforts to protect Turkey from any potential strike by Iraq, and are scheduled to be flying missions in defence of Turkish air space by Thursday.