Lieutenant Don Tarbell gives a talk to his troops before boarding a bus at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina

WASHINGTON, January 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The U.S. ordered another 35,000 troops to the Gulf while the crew of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal are preparing to leave for the region Saturday, January 11,  despite pleas from European allies to avoid war on Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed deployment orders for the new wave of reinforcements, which will include marines and more fighter aircraft, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted a senior U.S. official as saying.

The deployments come on top of 25,000 troops Rumsfeld ordered deployed to the Gulf just before Christmas.

They are among tens of thousands of army, marine, navy and Air Force personnel being dispatched over the next few weeks in a surge that will more than double the 65,000-strong U.S. military contingent in the region, defense officials told NBC News.

The new force includes two amphibious task forces comprising 13,000 to 14,000 Marines aboard about 14 ships.

Orders for those marines — about 7,000 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., and 6,000 from Camp Pendleton, Calif. — had already been received earlier in the day, officials said.

The rest of the troops will depart in phases over the rest of the month.

The new deployments will also include about 1,000 troops from the Army’s largest fighting organization, the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., defense officials told NBC News, as well as an undisclosed number of Patriot anti-missile batteries.

The Lejeune Marines were leaving Norfolk, Va., on Friday as part of a task force that includes infantry, tanks, amphibious vehicles, supply specialists and aircraft.

More than 1,000 Marines from the base are already in the gulf region, including a 500-person task force off the coast of northeastern Africa.

Another contingent of 400 Marines whose job is to unload supply ships left Wednesday aboard airplanes.

Seven San Diego-based amphibious ships were to carry the 6,000 Marines from Camp Pendleton to the gulf, The San Diego Union-Tribute reported.

The ships reportedly were loaded with tanks, artillery and ammunition.

In a related development, Secretary of State Colin Powell reiterated that the United States was resolved to disarm Iraq through military means if necessary, with or without U.N. approval.

"I think the international community...has spoken clearly," Powell said after meeting with International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohammed ElBaradei late Friday, January 10.

"Iraq must be disarmed of its weapons of mass destruction. And if it isn't accomplished peacefully...then I think the Security Council has to take the action that's indicated and determine whether or not force is appropriate."

President George W. Bush has "made it clear that we reserve the right...in the absence of international action to disarm Iraq, to act with like-minded nations to disarm Iraq. And we are positioning ourselves for whatever eventuality might occur," Powell said.

After weeks of procrastinating, Turkey reluctantly gave the U.S. military buildup a boost by agreeing to have its air bases and ports examined for possible use during any military conflict.

Turkey fears war in neighboring Iraq would send its crippled economy and stoke independence ambitions of its restive Kurdish population, which, with Iraqi Kurds forms the core of the Iraqi opposition.

Ark Royal prepares to set sail

British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal

The crew of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal are also preparing to leave for the Gulf Saturday in the biggest British naval deployment for two decades.

Officially the vessels are heading for Malaysia to take part in joint exercises in June.

But the ships' route via the Gulf has prompted widespread speculation they are being prepared for possible military action against Iraq.

The 20,000-ton flagship - which leaves Portsmouth at 1200 GMT - will be joined by a submarine, a frigate, a destroyer and two support vessels.

The flotilla is part of the biggest naval taskforce assembled since the Falklands War - including the capability to fire cruise missiles - in the shape of a nuclear submarine.

Hundreds of marines will leave Devonport naval base next week on board the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean.

HMS Ocean has recently seen action off the Pakistan coast during the war in Afghanistan.

Ark Royal and the 15 other ships will all meet in the Mediterranean in a fortnight and await orders.

Earlier this week, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon announced plans to deploy a force comprising 3,000 marine commandos and called up 1,500 reservists in readiness for possible Iraq war.

Hoon said as long as Iraq's compliance with U.N. resolutions was in doubt, the threat of force "must remain and it must be real."

However, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw spoke more moderately, saying, after talks in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur that Britain was committed to acting through the U.N. Security Council before being involved in any war.

The Ministry of Defense insists no final decision has been taken on what role the ships will perform.

Eric Grove, head of security studies at Hull University, said the taskforce had been put together because of the current crisis.

"The fact that she is going with a helicopter air group rather than her normal sea harrier and probably harrier air group demonstrates that we are putting together some kind of amphibious capability which may have some relevance in the context of the current crisis.

"There is a possibility that you could put the Royal Marines ashore via helicopters and conceivably use them against northern Iraq.

"The Royal Marines know that area well, they were deployed there as part of the humanitarian operation in Kurdistan in the aftermath of the Gulf war.”

European concern over war

But many allies, particularly in Europe, are worried about moves toward military offensive.

In Athens, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country currently chairs the European Union, said: "Our desire and intention is that there should be no war...We don't want a war."

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder also hardened his own antiwar position on Iraq.

He promised that Germany, which this year assumed a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, would do "everything it can" to prevent war.

Schroeder reiterated that even if the council decided on military action, Germany would not take part.

Next week, chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix is to brief senior EU diplomats in Brussels on the progress of weapons inspections in Iraq, his spokeswoman said.