More equipment against chemical attack has arrived

To British soldiers in the Kuwaiti desert, it does indeed now seem that war is imminent.

In the last few days proper front line ammunition has arrived as has syringes, or "combo pens", for protection against chemical attacks.

Until now, the troops have been equipped only with training ammunition, which was enough for practice and would have doubled as operational ammunition in emergencies.

But the 300 tonnes which arrived on Friday will be enough to launch a full-scale assault across the border with Iraq.

Click here for images of troops training in the Gulf

Once checked in, the ammunition is sent to three different places. Some goes to the fighting troops and their vehicles.

Others go to a depot just behind the front lines, and others to a static depot about 30km away.

The sheer volume of ammunition arriving at the camp left little doubt that the British Army was now expecting to fight, said reporters at the scene.

'Very frightening'

Within eight hours of its arrival, the Challenger tanks had been loaded up with high explosive and smoke shells, the Warrior armoured cars had their 30 millimetre rounds and the troops were walking around the camp with full ammunition clips.

Every British soldier in the Kuwaiti desert is also now carrying a pack of three special syringes.

The "combo pens" were greeted with both relief and alarm when they arrived - while they could save a life, they also symbolise a chemical attack.

Live, rather than training, ammunition has arrived

The syringes, which have 5cm needles that are pushed into the bone for 10 seconds, deliver a powerful dose of chemicals that improves the chances of survival after contamination by nerve gas.

Lieutenant Colonel Alistaire Deas, who distributed the packs, looked grim as he handed them out.

"No one likes getting them. God forbid that we ever have to use them,' he said. The troops said the commonest question on the camp was: "What do you think? Will he use it?"

'It is very frightening. It is something we just don't want to think about,", one soldier told reporters.

British soldiers also now have pills to take in the event of biological attack and carbon-lined suits for nuclear radiation.

Accelerating into summer

Many have already had three anthrax jabs, and no-one goes anywhere without a small green pack attached to their waist, containing a gas mask and the syringes. They also carry paper that turns a different colour if exposed to nerve gas.

And as the moment of the expected conflict draws nearer, sentries around the army posts will be issued with machines that will constantly monitor the air, trying to sniff out any suspicious particles and give an early warning of an attack.

Troops have been practising driving in the desert

Soon soldiers will be ordered to collect their personal mementoes - letters, photographs, diaries - and send them back down the lines, away from the border and potential enemy hands.

The weather is making the urgency all the greater.

At the moment, sandstorm season means dust and wind are the worst problems in terms of environment, but very soon heat will be a critical issue.

Reporters said there were hardly any desert orchids left in bloom now - their dying is the first indicator that sandstorm season is accelerating into the Gulf summer when the mercury rises daily to 40C.