RAF fighters are staging an exercise in Cornwall which a senior officer said would "obviously" help if they were deployed to Iraq.

Eight Harrier and eight Jaguar fighters have been flying from an operational base set up from scratch at RAF St Mawgan, near Newquay.

The exercise, called Cornish Talon, is aimed at training personnel to establish a self-sufficient base in harsh conditions with minimal infrastructure.

A temporary tented city housing 1,400 personnel has been erected as part of the manoeuvres.

I am trying to train people to cope with absolutely anything

Group Captain Mike Harwood

The RAF said the exercise was "intended to replicate the demands an increasingly expeditionary air force is likely to face".

Training base commander Group Captain Mike Harwood said: "I am trying to train people to cope with absolutely anything.

"I am trying not to make this focused specifically on Iraq, because the reality is some of these people are going to the Falkland Islands in three weeks.

"Others are going to Sierra Leone and Kosovo.

"All types of scenarios need different types of skills and expertise."

But he said the training would "obviously" help if they were deployed to Iraq.

Such training was like "gold dust" when it came to the real thing, he said.

He said they were learning to operate in a war footing environment so that "wherever we go we can survive".

Personnel from 40 different RAF and army bases were involved in the exercise.

Flight Lieutenant Simon Kilby, who is based at RAF Cottesmore, said there was "always talk" there about possible action in Iraq, "but definitely no action".

Asked whether he had been thinking about the possibility of operating in desert conditions against an active enemy, he said he had.

Log Viper

"I think 11 September focused everybody's mind, and ever since that day there has been thought, but no action at the moment."

Cornish Talon is being carried out at the same time as Log Viper, the army exercise which has been moving thousands of troops, supplies and vehicles to airfields and a military port near Portsmouth.

When details of the exercise emerged last week, newspapers speculated that the army was putting major stockpiles of weapons and supplies in the right place for an operation against Iraq.

Defence sources denied this, but analysts said the exercise would hone rapid deployment skills and show Iraq that British forces were ready to move if necessary.