THE Pentagon announced yesterday that it was increasing the number of US forces in Iraq to 135,000, dashing the hopes of the Bush Administration that they would be able to reduce the number by tens of thousands ahead of the Congressional elections in November.

Officials said that there were already 16 Army and Marine brigades in Iraq, two more than the level several months ago. The total troops there had already reached 132,000, and would climb in the coming weeks, buoyed by the decision to delay the scheduled return home this month of an Alaskan Army brigade.

The new deployments are in response to the escalating violence in Baghdad and the troop levels could remain intact for much of next year, officials said. The Pentagon said that the increases could push totals above 135,000 when brigades overlap as they are moving in and out of the country in the coming months.

The move comes as members of Congress are preparing to return to their constituencies before their November re-election campaigns.

Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, has insisted in the past that troop levels will be adjusted according to conditions on the ground, but officials, including military commanders and Congressmen, had hoped to see the troop numbers drop to about 100,000 by the end of the year.

Earlier this year there were suggestions that General George Casey, the top US commander in Iraq, would make recommendations to Mr Rumsfeld that could begin showing a decrease in US troops. But this week’s troop rotations, mapping out five more Army and Marine brigades scheduled to go to Iraq later this year, signalled that any decrease in the coming months is unlikely.

“The announcement that the US is sending more troops into Baghdad is a grim warning of just how serious the situation in Iraq has become,” said Anthony H. Cordesman, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

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