AL-UDEID (Qatar) Aug 11: If the United States decides to attack Iraq, it is likely to do so from its fast-expanding military base deep within the desert of the tiny Gulf state of Qatar, diplomats and analysts said on Sunday.

Faced with refusal from key Gulf Arab ally Saudi Arabia to be a launch pad for strikes on Baghdad, Washington has poured money and labour into expanding its $1.4 billion Al Udeid airbase which officials say will be finished by December.

Qatar has publicly opposed any attack on Iraq but Gulf-based diplomats say Doha has much to gain by currying favour with the world’s only superpower.

“We cannot say when or how the facilities would be used...but as far as the progress of work is concerned it is almost 80 per cent complete and I guess it should be ready by the year-end,” said a US official who declined to be named.

Commander of US Central Command Tommy Franks has said the base was being developed for “times of crisis”.

On Sunday, US Congressman David Hobson, chairman of the House of Representatives military construction sub-committee, visited the base, heightening speculation it could play a central role for US military activity in the region.

The United States has several Gulf bases, mainly in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, which alone hosts about 5,000 troops.

During the 1991 Gulf War, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan airbase was the operations centre for US troops taking part in the multi-national coalition which liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

Qatar, like other Arab states, has warned against a military strike on Iraq as a means of carrying out US President George W. Bush’s stated policy of ousting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

But diplomats say the Al Udeid base, equipped with command facilities and satellite links that can control thousands of air strikes daily, offers Washington an alternative to its Prince Sultan base.

In Washington on Sunday, Senator Fred Thompson, a Republican member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, said the United States did not need Saudi Arabian bases for an attack on Iraq.

“There are other countries in that area that we can use. We’re in the Gulf there already. I don’t think we have to have them (Saudi bases) in order to do that.” Thompson told the Fox News Sunday programme.—Reuters