"There are discussions of potentially moving up part of its force to an earlier deployment," said Army Major General Stanley McChrystal, deputy director of operations of the Joint Staff.

The regiment is a light armored force of about 5,000 troops who use Humvees and are backed by attack helicopters.

McChrystal insisted the deployment was not in response to stiffer-than-expected resistance encountered in southern Iraq.

"If anybody takes an inference that this is reinforcement based upon what has happened in the first week of war, that would be incorrect," he said at a Pentagon news conference.

There are still 100,000 to 120,000 US ground troops which are scheduled to deploy but which have not gone yet, including the 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division and the 2nd and 3rd Armored Cavalry regiments.

WAR.WIRE