"No less than 400 US and British fighter jets, transport aircraft and reconnaissance planes are taking off from Prince Sultan Air Base" in Al-Kharj, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Riyadh, said the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia in a statement posted on its website.

The London-based group also alleged that Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz had "issued instructions to supply US forces with two petrol tanks, each with a capacity of 80,000 barrels, to be used as fuel" for US aircraft.

The claims could not be independently confirmed.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly said it would have no part in the war on Iraq launched on March 20, and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal denied earlier this week that the United States had been using an advanced command and control system at the Prince Sultan Air Base to direct the military campaign.

"Targeting Iraq is not done from Prince Sultan Air Base. The only duty given to the US troops (there) is to enforce the no-fly zone over (southern) Iraq," he said.

Prince Saud also denied that the kingdom had granted permission to the United States to fire cruise missiles over its airspace, saying "there was no permission asked and none given."

On March 29, the New York Times published interviews with a number of US officers manning the command and control system at the Prince Sultan base in which they said they were directing the war on Iraq.

The paper said that dozens of men and women were working around the clock at the center "to decide where the missiles and bombs will explode in Iraq."

SPACE.WIRE