As US and British military commanders put together the final pieces of their military strategy, experts on both sides of the Atlantic are convinced Saddam Hussein has given his commanders the authority to fire chemical weapons without  further orders from the Iraqi leadership.

Intelligence reports indicate a high risk that Iraq would use chemical weapons against Allied troops, according to officials in Washington DC and London.

'We continue to receive reports that there is a high risk the Iraqi regime would use chemical weapons during any conflict,' Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a statement to the media.

President George W Bush and other US officials say Iraq has stocks of nerve agents sarin, cyclosarin and VX and a mustard agent like that first used in the First World War.

Troops have been ordered to begin taking anti-nerve agent tablets. The tablets called Naps -- short for Nerve Agent Pre-treatment Set -- build up the body's resistance to nerve agents and boost the effectiveness of emergency injections if a victim is contaminated.

Every British soldier in the Gulf has been issued with three 'combo pen' injectors which pump antidotes into the bloodstream.

Colonel Chris Vernon at British army headquarters near the Iraq border said: 'Younger soldiers facing combat for the first time are understandably apprehensive about what they may be about to face. But they will get on and do what they have to do if required. There is a high state of readiness among all the men I have encountered and they are now all primed and ready to go. Some units have already moved to forward assembly areas on the front line and are now just awaiting orders.'

In his bunker below the streets of Baghdad Saddam has been briefed about CIA tactics in sending his senior advisers a list of those officials liable to be prosecuted for war crimes.

The list contains more than 50 of Saddam's family members and closest allies and is being covertly circulated within Iraq in the hope that a number of key figures not named in the document will oppose the dictator in the knowledge that they will survive a regime change.

Commenting on the list terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp at St Andrews University in Edinburgh said, "This move is clearly designed to build up opposition within Saddam's wider circle of allies. It is a very shrewd strategy by the Americans as Iraq's senior hierarchy will be more than aware that the odds are stacked against them and if they fight the US, they will face certain death."

"Influential military and political figures not on the list will be given hope from this that they could survive under regime change and may be encourage to rebel against Saddam," he added.

Apart from Saddam, those at the top of the list are his sons Qusay and Uday, his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, the mastermind behind Iraq's chemical weapons arsenal, and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

Qusay and Uday were named by Bush in his March 17 ultimatum speech. 'Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict, commenced at a time of our choosing,' Bush said.

Despite the defiant statements from Baghdad reports said key aides are attempting to defect. In the past few days, Saddam has placed Defence Minister Lieutenant General Sultan Hasim al-Jabburi Tai and his closest relatives under house arrest. His detention followed growing apprehension that the Iraqi army, including the Republican Guard, might desert in the event of an attack.

In London sources claim several high-ranking army commanders had been detained in Baghdad in the past 24 hours and Saddam had sent members of his elite Special Security Organisation, the security apparatus directly responsible for the survival of his regime, to ensure the army's loyalty.

According to one diplomatic source, Saddam is quickly finding himself isolated. "There is a distinct mood of fatalism taking root in the highest levels of the Iraqi regime," the diplomat said. "Most of the senior officials are quietly making their escape plans. They realise that this conflict is all about Saddam, not them. Saddam doesn't even trust the staff at the presidential palaces. He has got to the stage where he doesn't trust the inner circle of henchmen he has protected over the years. The only people he really trusts are his sons."

On the eve of war there were indications that Saddam's concern would be to ensure that, even if he and his immediate family are overthrown, his dynasty will survive. He is believed to be making arrangements for his grandchildren to be sent into exile because of his assumption that they are too young to be held accountable for his regime's excesses. Among the countries being mentioned as possible sanctuaries for the young Husseins are Libya, Cuba and Algeria.

Senior Editor Shyam Bhatia is author of Saddam's Bomb, on Iraq's pursuit for weapons of mass destruction