Deployment orders went to a brigade of the army's 10th Mountain Division and to two Marine Expeditionary Units, which will deploy sooner than originally scheduled, the Pentagon said

They account for only about half the 20,000 troops that will be needed to relieve units from the 1st Armored Division and the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment that were extended for 90 days.

"We will not extend the same individuals," Rumsfeld said at a Pentagon press conference.

The decision effectively shelves an earlier plan to shrink the size of the US force in Iraq to between 105,000 and 115,000 troops. There is now recognition that hostilities in Iraq are unlikely to subside after the handover of limited power on June 30.

"We had planned for a lesser number of brigade equivalents," Lieutenant General Norton Schwartz, the Joint Staff's operations director, told reporters.

Schwartz said the security situation in Iraq had changed "so we're currently looking at a higher level of force structure."

Lieutenant General Richard Cody, the army's operations director, said the forces also will deploy with more tanks and armored fighting vehicles than initially planned.

Rather than deploying with one armored company for every two motorized infantry companies, they will have four armored companies for every five motorized infantry companies, he said.

He said that would free up more armored Humvees for combat support troops, addressing growing complaints that too many troops are vulnerable to attack by rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire as well as roadside bombs in thin-skinned Humvees.

Besides the combat troops, deployment orders went to 37,000 combat support troops, the Pentagon said. It did not say which units will go, or when.

It said all army national guard and reserve units being deployed would be given time to train for Iraq.

The army unit being deployed, 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade, has had only about nine months since returning from its last deployment to regear for the next one, Schwartz said. The marine units will have had about 12 months between deployments.

The generals acknowledged that the use of the marines ties down forces that normally are reserved for swift reactions to sudden crises in places, raising questions about the risks incurred in other parts of the world like the Korean peninsula.

"We still have a reaction capability in the United States," Schwartz said. "It's a great question."

Cody said a ready brigade from the army's 82nd Airborne Division will be fully operational on May 7.

"I think we can handle the tempo," said Schwartz. "It is demanding, no question about it. But I have not come to the conclusion, personally, that we need to grow the force yet.

"That depends again on how circumstances develop here. But certainly for this next rotation we can maintain this level of effort."

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