President Clinton is to send 2,200 Marines to the Gulf, making the present military build-up in the region greater than at any time since the 1990-91 Gulf war.
At the same time, however, he said in Washington last night that Iraq's President Saddam Hussein would not be targeted personally in any action against Baghdad.
Having talked up the prospect of military strikes over the past week, President Clinton and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, his only firm ally in threatening military action, insisted yesterday that they had not given up on finding a diplomatic solution.
Speaking at the White House before he and Mr Blair discussed the logistics of a possible military strike, President Clinton said: "I don't want a conflict and I don't believe that Prime Minister Blair does." If assurances could now be given that UN weapons inspectors could be allowed to do their job in Iraq then "nothing is inevitable here".
This statement follows days of objections from European and Arab states, as well as Russia and China, to threats of military action. France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League yesterday repeated calls for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in which Iraq is refusing to give UN inspectors unimpeded access to 78 "presidential sites" to check for weapons of mass destruction.
The French Foreign Minister said yesterday that the US and Britain were isolated in considering bombing Iraq, and France would not join in any military action against Baghdad.
In a strongly-worded criticism of the US position in a radio interview, Mr Hubert Vedrine said: "The United States must consider the fact that, apart from the British, no country has said it favours, in principle, the use of force, even if there is unanimity on the fact that Saddam Hussein must open up sites.
"That is not just the French position; it is the position of all Europeans as far as I can see, apart from the British. Obviously, it is the position of the Arab world, the Russians, the Chinese."
President Boris Yeltsin repeated his warning that a mishandling of military strikes could cause world war.
While Mr Blair did not rule out a diplomatic solution, he said on CBS News yesterday: "Diplomacy simply won't work without the threat of the use of force."
Intense diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis continued yesterday in Baghdad. Russian and French spokesmen claimed Iraq had shown signs of making concessions, but did not elaborate.
The Russian Foreign Minister, Mr Yevgeny Primakov, discussed the crisis by telephone yesterday with the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, and the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook.
Meanwhile, the military build-up in the Gulf is continuing, the largest at any time since the Gulf war. A third US aircraft carrier arrived in the Gulf yesterday, and a fourth western carrier, Britain's Invincible, is already there. About 20 US combat ships are in the region, with more than 150 strike warplanes and dozens of support aircraft aboard the three carriers.
The US has so far failed to convince Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to support military action. To conduct a lengthy military campaign, the US would need air bases in states neighbouring Iraq.
Blair to support US in any offensive against Iraq; Unseemly dispute with Israel complicates US