SYDNEY, Dec 18: Australian Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged Wednesday that contingency plans were being made for war in Iraq, amid reports that defence commanders have been told to prepare to go to war in March.

Sydney’s Daily Telegraph quoted senior military officers as saying they expected US President George W. Bush to give the green light early next month to begin final 60-day preparations for a March campaign.

Troops from the Special Air Services (SAS) Regiment, battle-toughened by a year in Afghanistan, will spearhead Australia’s involvement as US and British forces lead major air and ground assaults, the paper said.

The Australian war plan is also said to include a command headquarters, three warships — one an amphibious command ship, a flight of RAAF F/A 18 Hornet fighters, plus Orion maritime patrol aircraft and a 707 jet tanker.

Howard said using military force had only ever been a last resort as far as Australia was concerned.

But he told a Sydney radio station: “I’ve indicated already that, naturally, the defence forces are involved in some contingency arrangements.

“They must do that in the event that they’re called upon.”

Howard said no decision had been taken yet to commit forces to any campaign in Iraq and he was still hopeful war could be avoided. He added that any Australian involvement would be modest so as not to diminish Australia’s defence capabilities at home.

Howard acknowledged it might become necessary to make a decision about involvement in Iraq “and then that is something that we would have to take account of and think through in accordance with what is in Australia’s interests.”

“I do want to make it clear that if we were involved either here or indeed anywhere else in military conflict distant from Australian shores, the contribution we would make would not in any way weaken our capacity to deal with the problem on our own doorstep.”

The Telegraph, which has a reliable record on defence reports, said about 20 Australian officers were already attached to the US Gulf headquarters in Qatar to oversee Australia’s war plans.

A squadron of SAS troopers had spent months training for operations in Iraq. Up to 300,000 ground troops would be involved in the campaign, expected to last up to six months, and more countries could be involved if the war were sanctioned by the United Nations, the paper said.—AFP