WASHINGTON, March 13: The Pentagon said on Thursday that by the end of this week it would have deployed more than 250,000 troops around Iraq.

Talking to reporters in Washington, US defence officials said they have deployed enough troops in the possible war zone and were waiting for orders.

The Pentagon also called up 12,039 more reservists to active duty this week, bringing the total number of citizen-soldiers to 188,592.

Most of the reserves are in the Army National Guard and Reserve, at 130,142. The Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard have activated 27,737. The Marine Corps Reserve has called 18,770 to active duty the Naval Reserve has activated 8,744 and the Coast Guard has called 3,199.

The entire reserve corps totals 1.22 million people.

Not all of the reservists are in the Persian Gulf. Many are filling in posts vacated by active duty personnel who deployed to the region for a possible war with Iraq.

On Tuesday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers had said there were more than 225,000 personnel arrayed around Iraq.