BRITAIN: Britain's Royal Navy aircraft carrier the Ark Royal is preparing to set sail for the Gulf as Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's office denied any rift with the US over the stand-off with Iraq.
The Ark Royal will leave Portsmouth today to head a powerful task group intended to underline the "clear and credible" threat of force facing Saddam Hussein if he refuses to give up his weapons of mass destruction.
In a further development, the Ministry of Defence announced that more than 1,000 paras were being withdrawn from the Green Goddess crews providing emergency cover during the fire strikes in readiness for possible operations against Iraq.
The troops of the 16th Air Assault Brigade will resume normal military training while their place on the Green Goddesses will be filled by other units.
"This change is being undertaken to enable us to maintain a range of options should military action against Iraq become necessary," the MoD said.
After loading up with ammunition in Scotland, the Ark Royal will head for the Mediterranean to join up with the rest of Naval Task Group 03. The force, carrying 3,000 Royal Marine commandos, will comprise 16 surface vessels - including the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean - and one nuclear-powered submarine armed with Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Task force commander Rear Admiral David Snelson said it was the largest British naval deployment for 20 years and represented "one part of the jigsaw of combat power".
Downing Street, meanwhile, was forced to deny claims of a split with Washington after Tony Blair's attempt to check the growing drive for war with Iraq.
Mr Blair told the Cabinet on Thursday that the UN weapons inspectors needed "time and space" to do their job and that their next report on January 27th was "in no sense a deadline" for the inspection process.
More hawkish elements in the US administration, anxious to press on with military action, have been increasingly looking to January 27th as a key date in the crisis.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman insisted that Britain and the US were continuing to pursue the same course.
"Our bottom line is precisely the same, which is that Saddam either disarms himself or will be disarmed," he said.
"This is a serious process which everyone should take seriously, not least Saddam himself, because that is the clear duty imposed on him by the UN resolution." However, shadow defence secretary Bernard Jenkin said that differences were now emerging between London and Washington.
"If the United States believes that January 27th is a key deadline, on what basis does the British government take a different view? The Prime Minister must act in the national interest," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Blair received a fresh warning of the unrest within the Labour ranks over the prospect of war. Helen Jackson, vice-chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party, said that there was "always a possibility" that some junior ministers might feel so strongly they could resign. - (PA)