"We're deploying approximately 300 member and six B-52s in the next two to four weeks from Minot to Anderson in Guam," said Senior Airman Steve Grever, a spokesman at the North Dakota air base.

"It's all part of a 90-day air expeditionary force rotation," he said.

The US military use the air power deployments to Guam as a deterrent against North Korea while US forces are tied down in Iraq.

It coincides with a massive rotation of forces to Iraq which will include thousands of Marines based on the US west coast, including a 3,000-member Marine Expeditionary Force that normally would be deploying to Okinawa, said Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico, a Pentagon spokesman.

He said the deployment has been long in the works and was not in response to any particular situation in the region.

"The deployment is part of US Pacific Command's objective to adjust its force posture to enhance regional security," the air force said in a statement. jm/gs

WAR.WIRE