LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair Friday delivered a "direct message" to British forces Friday to be prepared for action against Iraq if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein fails to comply with UN demands to disarm, AFP reported.

"The key thing at the moment is to make all the preparations necessary, and to make sure that we are building up the capacity in the region," Blair told the British Armed Forces Radio and Television Service.

"We will be prepared to use force in order to ensure that they (the Iraqi regime) are disarmed of all chemical, biological and potentially nuclear weapons," he said.

He was speaking after U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell late Thursday dismissed Iraq's 12,000-page weapons declaration as "a catalog of recycled information and flagrant omissions".

Powell said Baghdad had thereby flouted UN Security Council Resolution 1441 on Iraqi disarmament which warns of "serious consequences" if Baghdad fails to comply.

"At the moment we simply don't know whether the (UN weapons) inspectors will find the breach or not," he said, referring to U.S. and British claims that Iraq was in "material breach" of its UN obligations regarding disarmament.

But "the only circumstances in which Iraq will cooperate properly is if whatever UN resolution we have is backed up by the potential use of force," Blair said.

"Sometimes the best way of avoiding war is to be prepared for war if you have to have it," he added.

Praising British forces for the work they have done this year, including providing fire cover and in Afghanistan, Blair described them as a "huge asset" to any prime minister.

According to the London-based shipping newspaper Lloyd's List, Britain was Friday seeking four more ships to carry tanks and other military equipment to the Persian Gulf in anticipation of a war against Iraq.

The report came the day after Britain's Defense Ministry let the shipping market know of its requirement for four roll-on/roll-off ships to be delivered on January 15.

The ships will be charted for an initial 90-days, which defense observers in London believe could point to an invasion of Iraq some time in February, the paper said.

The time needed to deploy means that action against Iraq is not likely before the end of February, a defense expert in London said Friday.

"There's still probably a couple of months altogether before we end up in a potential war situation" allowing Iraq plenty of time to cooperate, said Timothy Garden from the Royal Institute of International Affairs.

"If you look at the buildup of forces and the announcement this week by the UK that it's doing the preparatory moves it would take a certainly a month to get everything into theater after you start deploying," the former serviceman told BBC radio.

Blair's message to his troops came two days after the Defense Ministry announced that a naval force led by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal will head for the Persian Gulf next month.