Tanks being refitted for desert war

The army is to adapt its main battle tank for the desert – a move seen as the first indication by the British Government of active preparation for an Iraq war.

A total of 234 Challenger 2s will be given the makeover. The decision is viewed by defence chiefs as a signal for going on war footing.

But diplomatic sources said Britain, along with France, was still strongly pursuing the question of Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction through the United Nations. Paris and London persuaded the United States last week not to put to the UN a tough new resolution which would enable military strikes against Iraq if Saddam Hussein's regime was deemed to be blocking arms inspectors.

An opinion poll published yesterday showed support in Britain for a war against Iraq had risen from 32 to 42 per cent since the bomb attack in Bali.

Carrying out the modifications for all the Challengers would cost £90m, a figure which generals say needs the sanction of the Government.

It will take up to three months to complete the work, which includes "skirts" to keep out sand, new oil and air filters as well as changes to the engines. This will mean that the British armour will be ready for what is considered to be the optimum time for a land offensive. Significantly, the "skirts" will not be temporary. Those cost a fraction of the permanent modifications and would have been enough for any exercise.

Last week, a senior Whitehall source, heavily involved in planning a Gulf war, said the decision to make the Challengers desert-ready must be taken by the end of the month if British armour was to be ready for action in January.

The Challengers suffered embarrassing failures during operation Saif Sareea II in Oman last year. A subsequent report by the National Audit Office revealed that only half the tanks worked after the engines became clogged with dust.

The investigation found that the Challengers were in a long list of essential arms and equipment unfit for use in a desert conflict such as war with Iraq.

Simon Webb, policy director at the Ministry of Defence, defended the decision not to adapt the tanks during the Oman exercise. He told the Commons committee: "I remember the question came up, 'Should we spend X million on the 'desertification' of the Challenger tank for the exercise?' We decided we wouldn't. We weren't trying to prove the performance of the Challenger. That was not the point it was not an equipment trial."

His explanation failed to satisfy the committee, which toldofficials to produce a written assurance that the MoD had a fully tested programme for the desert modifications.

* An explosives-laden boat rammed the French oil tanker Limburg as it neared a Yemeni port on 6 October, Yemen's Interior Minister said yesterday in the first official acknowledgment that the ship was the victim of a terror attack.

Rashad al-Eleimi said the bombing and subsequent fire was "a deliberate act of terror carried out by an explosives-laden boat," and said an unspecified number of suspects had been arrested.