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The United States has ordered the deployment of 60,000 more troops for a possible war against Iraq, a defense official said Tuesday, although their destination was unclear after Turkey's refusal to accept US troops.

The huge new deployment will add to the force of more than 225,000 US troops already in the region around Iraq, with more than 111,000 massed in Kuwait on the border with Iraq.

The new forces include 26,000 troops deploying with the 1st Armored Division, 24,000 troops with 1st Cavalry Division and 10,000 troops with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

Earlier, spokesmen for the 1st Armored Division in Weisbaden, Germany and the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas acknowledged receiving deployment orders. The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment is based at Fort Polk, Louisiana.

"We're continuing the force flow," said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. "Forces are still flowing into the theater."

The destination of the latest forces was a major question because the Turkish parliament on Saturday rejected a plan to allow in up to 62,000 US troops to stage a possible invasion of Iraq from the north.

Before Tuesday's announcement, Pentagon officials had said they were holding off on deployments while the dust settles in Turkey.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who signed the latest deployment orders over the weekend, was due to meet Tuesday at the Pentagon with the commander of US forces in the Gulf, Army General Tommy Franks, officials said.

US war plans had called for ground offensives into Iraq from the south, where the bulk of US deployed forces are located, and from Turkey in the north.

A division sized force of about 20,000 troops, backed with tanks and armored vehicles, was considered the minimum to bring effective pressure on the regime from the north.

Pentagon officials insist that even without Turkey, US forces can move into northern Iraq to conduct "stability operations" and keep the pressure on Baghdad.

But the latest deployment orders have gone to heavy armored divisions that could not easily be airlifted into the north.

Also hanging fire was the 4th Infantry Division, a heavy division based in Texas that was supposed to go to Turkey.

Its troops are still in Fort Hood, Texas while the divisions M-1Abrams tanks and M-2 Bradley Fighting vehicles were aboard ships off Turkey.

At least parts of the 101st Airborne Division, based in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, also had been slated to deploy to Turkey, but the Pentagon opted last month to send the entire division to Kuwait in the facing of mounting delays and political uncertainties in Ankara.

Although it will take several weeks to deploy the additional forces, Pentagon officials said they do not expect that to force delays in the start of a campaign to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

War plans envisioned a "rolling start" with late deploying forces arriving after the start of hostilities, officials have said.

The Washington Post quoted the commander of US ground forces in Kuwait as saying US forces are ready to attack "with or without Turkey."

"From an operational standpoint, with or without Turkey, if the president makes a decision, the military will be ready," Army Lieutenant General David McKiernan said.

"If a decision is made to conduct combat operations, when you put together all the pieces of air, ground, maritime, special operating forces, I will tell you it will be more than a one-direction effort and it will be an effort that comes at the time and location of our choosing."

More than 225,000 US troops are now deployed for a possible war over an area that stretches from the Mediterannean to Afghanistan. More than 111,000 US troops are on the ground in Kuwait, the main staging area for an assault. 

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