IRAQ: Downing Street has denied planning to deploy British troops in support of American forces around Baghdad in a "political gesture" to help President Bush win the US election.
However, the Blair government remained on the defensive last night, as the Defence Secretary Mr Geoff Hoon prepared to make a "holding" statement to MPs in the House of Commons this afternoon. The pressure on the government came as thousands of anti-war campaigners took to the streets of London calling for an end to the "illegal occupation" of Iraq.
Demonstrators at the protest - estimated by police to be 20,000-strong - carried posters and banners bearing slogans condemning the war. The march ended with a rally in Trafalgar Square which was marred by scuffles as activists tried to break into the cordon around the main stage in Trafalgar Square. Stewards linked arms to stop them and one man was later carried away by police.
The Ministry of Defence said that while Mr Hoon would confirm that a request had been received from the Americans to deploy British troops outside the UK controlled-sector in Basra, no decisions had yet been made.
A statement from Mr Hoon had been demanded by the Conservative defence spokesman Mr Nicholas Soames, following reports that 650 soldiers from the Black Watch are to be redeployed to an area 25 miles south of Baghdad to free the US 24th Marine Expeditionary Force for an expected assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah.
In comments revealing how far the Conservative leadership has distanced itself from both the Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair, and the Bush White House, Mr Soames raised explicit concern about a possible political motive for any redeployment of British forces. "We need to watch the timing of all this," he said, "and to be careful this isn't just being used as a kind of political gesture to reassure Americans of Prime Minister Blair's support for the American efforts. What alarms and awes me is the timing of this operation, especially during Ramadan."
Similar suspicions of political calculations and an American election "sub-plot" were also voiced by Labour MPs and the Liberal Democrat spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell.
President Bush has been under pressure to counter his opponent Mr John Kerry's assertion that, while the president claims to have assembled an international coalition, it is US soldiers who are suffering high casualty rates in Iraq and that other countries should share more of the burden.
The suggestion that "some tawdry deal" had been done to assist President Bush was dismissed by Health Secretary Dr John Reid and by his cabinet colleague Mr Alan Milburn. "For people to suggest that there is some tawdry political deal here, I think, diminishes the effort that has been made by our soldiers on the ground," Dr Reid told the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme.
Dr Reid appeared to confirm reports that any British troops to be redeployed would be placed under American command.
"There will be occasions when you are fighting in coalition when, at a tactical level, you operate under your ally's control. But the decisions will be made on an operational ground," said Dr Reid.
And senior politicians backed the reported concerns of British defence chiefs that the suggested redeployment could be politically driven and leave British troops vulnerable to another insurgent uprising.
Former ministers Mr Robin Cook, Mr Peter Kilfoyle and Lord (Denis) Healey also reflected concern that British forces could face greater danger by being drawn further into the Iraq conflict and by being associated in Iraqi minds with "heavy-handed" US tactics.
Mr Kilfoyle said: "Those of us who opposed the war are very alarmed. We are putting our troops in harm's way and subject to the vagaries of how the Americans do things."
While calling for the withdrawal of British troops as soon as possible, Lord Healey said: "If we do anything it is better to do it in Basra, where we have managed to keep the bulk of the population on our side."
Mr Cook said he was not going to discount the possibility that the US election was a "sub-plot": "I would not be surprised at anything this [ US] administration did. But I don't think Tony Blair needs to show any more support for Bush. He has already done so in spades."