Iran's Guards to hold wargames in Gulf - agencies

TEHRAN, Feb 6 (Reuters) Iran's Revolutionary Guards will hold two days of wargames in the Gulf and Sea of Oman this week, focusing on launching missiles, Iranian news agencies reported today.

The announcement follows mounting tension with the United States, which has said it will step up pressure on Iran. This has included despatching a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, a major shipping lane for oil exports.

The exercises will be staged tomorrow and Thursday by the missile units of the Guards' naval and air forces, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing a Guards source.

The manoeuvres will ''focus on exercises for launching missiles'', Iran's student news agency ISNA said.

The Revolutionary Guards is an ideological wing of the Islamic Republic's armed forces and has a separate command structure to the regular military. Iran's previous exercises in the region have widely been seen as a show of military capacity.

Fars news agency said the manoeuvres would strengthen ''defensive ability''.

Military experts say Iranian forces are no technological match for the U.S. military but could still cause havoc in the Gulf and the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a choke point through which two fifths of the world's traded oil passes.

The United States is at loggerheads with Iran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, which Washington says is aimed at building an atomic bomb, despite Tehran's denials.

Washington has said it wants diplomacy to resolve the standoff but has not ruled out force if that fails.

REUTERS PDM PM2154