New York: The United States has installed a new state-of-the-art command centre at a heavily guarded base in the Gulf state of Qatar to readily serve as a headquarters for a possible war on Iraq, a media report said on December 1.

The official purpose of the base, 'As Sayaliyah', is to prepare for a major American military exercise in December called 'Internal Look'.

It will be the first time that a war game of its type being conducted outside the United States and that the command and control procedures practiced would be the same used for a war with Iraq, senior US officials were quoted as saying by the 'New York Times'.

Gen Tommy R Franks, the head of the Central Command, is expected to arrive at the base in about a week to take part in the exercise, involving about 750 staff members from the headquarters of the United States Central Command along with top Army, Marine, Air Force, Navy and Special Operations commanders in the region, the paper said.

Western officials say the United States has not yet formally asked the Qataris if it can run a war with Iraq from their country.

The official line is that the United States is merely improving its military readiness while it waits to see if Iraq provides a complete account of its weapons programmes and cooperates with United Nations inspectors, the daily said.

'As Sayaliyah', a 262-acre deployment completed in August 2000 at a cost of more than $ 100 million has more than 20 climate-controlled warehouses, capacity of storing hundreds of M1 tanks and other armoured vehicles and all equipments required for establishing a forward base, the paper said.

PTI