Britain and US marshal crack troops to intensify pressure on Saddam

The staging of military exercises by thousands of elite British troops and logistics regiments has intensified speculation about a build-up to war in Iraq.

Today, 6,000 regular and Territorial Army soldiers start Operation Log Viper, the largest exercise seen in Britain for four years, designed to test movements of supplies and ammunition.

In eight days, 1,000 British troops, including hundreds of Royal Marines and artillery units from 3 and 40 Commandos in Plymouth, will also fly out to join a major US exercise in the Mojave desert in California. Several of the Marines units involved took part in British operations in Afghanistan.

Army officials insisted that the exercise with US Marines, codenamed Black Horse, was a routine event that had been planned well before the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

But officials admit the three-week-long simulated desert battle, coupled with Operation Log Viper, was intended to strengthen the British army's war-fighting capabilities. "These exercises take years to organise. That's why we train," said a Ministry of Defence spokesman. "We train for any eventuality."

During Operation Log Viper, the 6,000 troops will use 1,000 vehicles to move thousands of tonnes of supplies over the next month, to an RAF base in Suffolk and Marchwood military port near Southampton.

The Army's detailed disclosures about the scale of the exercises appears designed to reinforce the impression that war preparations are under way, increasing pressure on Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein. But the MoD denied reports on Friday suggesting that up to 30,000 troops were being readied for transfer to Kuwait – a potential staging post for an invasion of Iraq.

Yet rumours of war are building in the Middle East. Residents of the small Gulf state of Qatar reported a sudden jump in flights by US transport planes, large purchases of fuel and a rush of military buying in the supermarkets, including "huge" amounts of canned goods and groceries.

The Qatari government insists it has had no US request to use its facilities to mount an attack on Iraq. Along with with most other Arab states, it has warned that a strike on Iraq could destabilise the entire region.

However, Qatar is already earmarked as an alternative US base if Saudi Arabia baulks at a war. Military facilities there include the al-Udeid air base, where the runway has recently been lengthened at American expense, and a computerised command and control centre that played a key role in the US war in Afghanistan.

Last week, US military commanders announced that 600 Central Command staff were moving from Florida to Qatar in November to take part in a training exercise.