AMMAN -- U.S. troops are expected Monday in Jordan to take part in joint military exercises due to start in the next 48 hours and which have no link with any eventual U.S. attack on Iraq, an official told AFP.

Around 4,000 U.S. troops will hold various joint maneuvers with Jordanian soldiers for three weeks, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the American forces will disembark in the southern Port of Aqaba.

"These maneuvers were decided more than a year ago and are part of regular exercises between the armies of the two countries that have nothing to do with Iraq," the official said.

"Every single U.S. soldier taking part in the maneuvers will leave Jordan at the end of the exercises in the first week of September," the official added.

He also stressed that the presence of U.S. troops in Jordan has a "positive affect on the (cash-strapped) economy because of their spending" especially in Aqaba, 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Amman.

Jordan is one of Washington's key Arab allies but it is staunchly opposed to a U.S. strike on its eastern neighbor Iraq.

Jordanian officials have repeatedly denied Western and Arab press reports on the presence in the kingdom of U.S. troops in preparation for such an attack.

They have also stressed that no exercises with the U.S. army have been held near the Iraqi border.