LONDON, Oct 26: Britain announced on Friday it was mobilizing 600 elite Royal Marines commandos for a possible ground mission in Afghanistan in a major stepping up of the US-led coalition against terrorism.

Officials said further ground forces could be deployed “within two or three days” if reinforcements were needed.

Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram also signalled that Britain would step up its involvement in the air campaign over Afghanistan.

Ingram told the British parliament that 200 crack Marines were “immediately available” in the Gulf area, with 400 more to be on high alert and ready to deploy from Britain.

This “represents a major enhancement of the coalition’s capabilities”, he told the House of Commons.

Britain will maintain a total of 4,200 service personnel, including support staff as part of its military force in the Gulf, which includes warships, submarines and warplanes.

However, Ingram said no decision had been taken to deploy large scale British ground forces.

The group of 200 commandos will remain in the Gulf on board the Royal Navy ship, HMS Fearless, instead of returning as originally planned with other British troops from huge military exercises in Oman next week, Ingram said. “Some 200 men of 40 Commando Royal Marines, based in Taunton (southwestern Britain) will be aboard HMS Fearless as a lead element of an immediately available force to help support the operations,” Ingram said.

Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the commitment of additional forces to the campaign against the Taliban was essential for the defence of national security and of civilized values.

Speaking on British Forces radio, Blair said that if Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network were not stopped, there was a danger they could acquire nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction.

“If these terrorists who killed over 6,000 people in America are allowed to carry on building up their terrorist network, possibly acquiring chemical, biological even nuclear weapons of mass destruction, our world will be an insecure, unsafe place and there will be no corner of the world — particularly not a place like Britain — that will be untouched by that.”

The British marines are part of 3 Commando Brigade and have been training intensively in the Omani desert as part of more than 20,000 British troops on Exercise Saif Sareea II (Swift Sword II).—AFP