The anti-Saddam activists will go to the US airbase in the small town of Taszar, 100 miles south of Budapest in two groups early next year. They will be trained to take up key roles in any post-Saddam regime.

The Iraqi personnel will be composed of interpreters, guides and auxiliary staff, and will be contracted to the US Army. They will be confined to base for several months, although US personnel will be allowed to leave.

Mr Rumsfeld’s request will be passed to the Hungarian Government by Ferenc Juhasz, the Minister of Defence, before being presented to parliament early next week. The ruling Socialist-Liberal coalition is likely to approve the request.

Peter Medgyessy, the Hungarian Prime Minister, and Laszlo Kovacs, the Foreign Minister, visited Washington last month to cement Hungarian-US ties, which had become strained under the previous Government.

Hungarian officials admit that the Iraqis will be trained in handgun use for self- defence, but denied that the Iraqis will be undergoing practice in combat or guerrilla warfare. “They will be engaged in familiarisation training, as they will be part of the military administration in Iraq after Saddam Hussein falls, if the coalition takes action,” one official said.

It may appear an unlikely base from which to devise a post-Saddam administration, but Taszar has several pluses for Pentagon planners. Secure and well protected, it played a central role as a staging post for UN and US forces deployed to Bosnia after the Dayton peace accords in 1995. Since then it has been a key staging base for US forces.

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