The reinforcement -- which another report had predicted would be formally announced next week -- has been put off again by Prime Minister Tony Blair due to concern about the reaction, the Daily Mirror reported.

On Tuesday, the Times had said Blair planned to send the troops to a region including the holy city of Najaf, where radical cleric Moqtada Sadr has been holed up for more than a month with his militia in defiance of US-led forces.

They would replace Spanish forces, recently withdrawn following the country's change of government.

However the Daily Mirror said in a front-page article that political will had now been lost.

"The government's appetite to take on Najaf has all but disappeared. It doesn't believe it can sell it to the public," a "senior army source" was quoted as saying.

"Three weeks ago, we were readying to go. Now nobody expects it until late summer at the earliest, if ever," the source said, with the newspaper adding that no deployment was expected until September at the earliest.

Senior army officers had additionally warned the government that "fatalities could be expected" if British troops were sent to Najaf, the paper said, while many lawmakers from Blair's ruling Labour party were also expected to oppose the dispatch of more soldiers.

Britain currently has 7,900 troops occupying southern Iraq, headquartered in Basra.

Public support for their presence among already sceptical Britons slipped after no weapons of mass destruction were discovered in Iraq following the war to unseat Saddam Hussein.

Bloody unrest in Iraq over recent weeks, as well as a scandal surrounding widespread allegations that US soldiers -- and to a lesser extent, British ones -- mistreated prisoners have also caused worries for Blair.

WAR.WIRE