NEW YORK, Dec 29: Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide US military with airspace and airbases and other facilities in the event of a war with Iraq, claimed the New York Times quoting senior US military officials on Sunday.

For the last few months there were conflicting signals coming out of Riyadh which cast doubt over Saudi commitment to the US forces.

However, according to the NYT, the American commanders now say they have been given assurances privately in recent weeks that they will be allowed to run an air war against Iraq from a sophisticated command centre at Prince Sultan Air Base outside Riyadh. It is the same command post that ran the air campaign in Afghanistan.

In a significant sign of the new cooperation, Saudi officials over the past two months have quietly permitted American warplanes based in the kingdom to bomb targets in southern Iraq in response to Iraqi violations of the no-fly zone there. Previously, those missions were flown out of Kuwait, the paper said.

“I firmly believe the Saudis will give us all the cooperation we need, and every indication I have is we’re getting pretty much what we’ve asked for,” Gen John P. Jumper, the Air Force chief of staff, told the Times in an interview.

Because of its nearness to Iraq and large, modern facilities like the Prince Sultan base, Saudi Arabia offers crucial advantages as a staging area for military operations.