Two dozen Apache helicopter gunships, tanks and combat vehicles for at least two armoured brigade combat teams have been shipped in with the troops, many of whom are conducting high-profile exercises in the northern desert, close to the Iraqi border.

Training is virtually round-the-clock and the media is being given increased access to some of the camps as well as the Udairi range, a vast training area northwest of Kuwait City where live-fire exercises are underway.

US camps have sprouted particularly in the northern desert, namely the Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Commando camps. The latter houses US marines.

A new camp, Arifjan, was recently also built in the south of the country.

Camp Doha, the main base, 30 kilometres (19 miles) north of Kuwait City, is the largest and oldest, and houses thousands of troops and heavy equipment, including tanks and artillery.

The headquarters of the US Third Army -- which controls troops in North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia -- was transferred to Kuwait in late 2001 amid a military buildup in Afghanistan.

But American and Kuwaiti officials like to deny that the buildup here is in preparation for any US-led military campaign against Iraq, whose forces were driven out of Kuwait by a US-led coalition during the 1991 Gulf War.

From official US announcements, an extra 3,000 US troops have arrived in the last month since when Kuwait has sealed off a quarter of the country as the wargames go on.

Kuwait, seen as a frontline state in any possible war on Iraq, has sought to distance itself from the fact that the number of US troops here has increased threefold in less than a year and says they are only here for joint exercises.

The emirate, while voicing steadfast support for its main ally, has publicly said it is opposed to any US military strikes on Iraq without a UN mandate.

Kuwait and the US have been conducting joint manoeuvres in the desert since the 1991 liberation but the increased number of troops, camps and military hardware is sending a strong signal to Iraq that American forces are ready for action at any time.

Kuwaiti people make no secret of the fact that they would like to see an end to the regime of President Saddam Hussein, whom they have never forgiven for invading their country.

But many also say they resent "being caught in the middle" of a US-Iraqi conflict and feel vulnerable to any Iraqi retaliation.

The vast majority of Kuwaitis, familiar with the sight of US personnel and vehicles moving around their country, have never expressed anything short of full support for US troops here, whose presence they see as necessary to repel another Iraqi invasion.

But a series of shooting incidents -- one fatal -- involving US servicemen certainly jolted perception of that support.

A US marine was killed and another wounded during wargames on a Kuwaiti island in October.

One of the two Kuwaiti assailants, who were both killed in the attack, had sworn allegiance to terror chief Osama bin Laden, the emirate's interior minister has said.

Kuwait condemned the attack as a "terrorist" act but officials played down three shooting incidents that followed involving US soldiers. No injuries were reported.

Then on November 21, a Kuwaiti police officer shot and wounded two US soldiers in a civilian vehicle on a highway south of the capital. The officer allegedly told state security he "hated Americans" and had planned to kill them.

SPACE.WIRE