¡¡¡¡KUWAIT CITY, February 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Nearly 170 German soldiers have arrived in Kuwait to begin specialized manoeuvres with U.S. and Kuwaiti forces on nuclear, biological and chemical warfare countermeasures, Kuwait's Arab Times newspaper reported on Monday.

¡¡¡¡A Kuwaiti military spokesman was quoted as saying that the German troops, who landed in the Gulf state on Wednesday, brought with them sophisticated equipment to be used in the anti-nuclear, biological or chemical war games.

¡¡¡¡The German soldiers will stay in Kuwait for one month, during which they will join some 8,000 U.S. ground troops stationed here in the military exercises.

¡¡¡¡The specialized war games were unveiled amid fear that the United States might target Iraq in its next phase of combat against terrorism.

¡¡¡¡U.S. President George W. Bush has already branded Iraq, which invaded into Kuwait in 1990 to trigger the next year's Gulf war, as part of an "axis of evil" seeking weapons of mass destruction.¡¡

¡¡¡¡U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Sunday rebuffed the fresh assurance by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that his country was not obtaining weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. could act to counter what it sees as clear and present danger, Powell declared.

¡¡¡¡Kuwaiti sources, however, played down reports last month that German and Czech anti-chemical warfare units could be deployed in the Gulf state, saying that Kuwait had not processed official requests for deployments of the two European countries' troops on its territory.

¡¡¡¡According to those reports, the Czech Republic could send a roughly 350-strong anti-chemical warfare squad to Kuwait early March to join the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism. Germany was reported to send similar troops.

¡¡¡¡Kuwait, a close ally of the United States, also denied last Friday a report by the British Guardian newspaper, that 200,000 U.S. soldiers were ready to launch an offensive from Kuwait against Iraq. Enditem

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