London: Britain today (Oct 19, 2004) said that it was "considering" a request from Washington to redeploy some of its troops in Iraq from their current base in Basra into strife-torn US-held areas.

"The US request is for a limited number of UK ground forces to be made available to relieve US forces and to allow them, in turn, to participate in further operations elsewhere in Iraq against the terrorists," Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons.

He said that the request was being "considered", along with details such as the length of operation, its timing, command and control arrangements and which forces would be appropriate to conduct the operation.

The Defence Secretary said a UK reconnaissance team will be going to the relevant area tomorrow (Oct 20, 2004) to gather information for the Chief of Staff who is expected to recommend whether to comply by the middle of this week, he said adding "the request is a military request".

It was not linked to the US elections but the Iraqi elections, scheduled for January.

Hoon said, "There has been considerable speculation in the media over the past several days about the United Kingdom deploying forces outside its current area of operations in Southern Iraq.

"The only relevant fact is that the UK military received a request on October 10 from the US military command in Iraq for assistance.

"Such requests and discussions between allies are routine."