WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army is ready to conduct "sustained land combat operations" as part of President Bush's promised war against terrorism, the Army's top civilian official said Thursday.

Army Secretary Thomas E. White told reporters at the Pentagon that a deployment order signed by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday includes Army as well as Air Force troops. He said it was only the first step in a broader military plan that would unfold in the weeks ahead.

"A lot more will come," he said.

White declined to say which Army forces are included in the initial deployment, but he made clear that his service is gearing up for a lengthy war that would involve every aspect of the Army's combat power.

"We are ready to conduct sustained land combat operations as determined by the secretary of defense and the president," White said.

"We are ready to deliver it across the whole array of force structure — heavy, light, airmobile, airborne, special operations. All of the combat capabilities."

On Wednesday, officials disclosed that the Air Force is taking the first steps to dispatch dozens of warplanes to the Persian Gulf area, setting in motion "Operation Infinite Justice" for the promised war on terrorism.

Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said Wednesday, "The United States is repositioning some of its forces to support the president's goal." She would not elaborate.

Senior defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said combat aircraft, including F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-15 Eagles, will be preceded by Air Force airlift control teams from bases in California and New Jersey.

The airlift control teams will establish what the Air Force calls an "air bridge," coordinating ground communications to match up refueling aircraft with fighters and, later, bombers crossing the Atlantic.

It probably will take about a week to get the combat planes in position, one official said.

In the interview Thursday, White said Army special operations forces, such as Rangers and Green Berets, almost certainly will play an important role in the war on terrorism, although he declined to be specific.

"I am sure that this campaign will involve them, and they are ready to go," he said.

Some officials involved in the military planning want Bush to target Iraq, but advisers close to the president say Saddam Hussein is not an initial target. Bush wants to strike Osama bin Laden and his alleged terrorist network, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

However, the Bush administration has put the world on notice that any nation — including Iraq — harboring terrorists could be the focus of U.S. strikes down the line.

The Sept. 11 terror strikes that demolished the World Trade Center towers and one side of the Pentagon were direct attacks on the United States, Rumsfeld said Thursday on NBC's "Today."

"The only way to deal with that kind of attack is in self-defense to go after the terrorists that are perpetrating those crimes and we must also go after the nations that are harboring and financing and supporting and facilitating and tolerating these terrorists," Rumsfeld said.

Separate from the order to send Air Force planes to the Persian Gulf area, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and the ships in its battlrPup left their home port at Norfolk, Va., on Wednesday for a scheduled six-month deployment to the Mediterranean.

Just before the carrier left Norfolk Naval Station, the Navy secretary, Gordon England, gave the sailors a pep talk.

"We're learning once again that freedom and liberty and the American way of life are not a birthright," he said. "It is time for us to pick up the mantle to destroy terrorism and remove this cancer."

The deployment from Norfolk includes more than 15,000 sailors and Marines, including 2,100 Marines aboard a battle-ready unit known as an Amphibious Ready Group, led by the assault ship USS Bataan.

The Theodore Roosevelt battle group includes two attack submarines, the USS Hartford and the USS Springfield, both capable of firing Tomahawk cruise missiles.

The Navy already has one carrier battle group in the Persian Gulf — the USS Carl Vinson — and a second, the USS Enterprise, is in the Arabian Sea to the south.

Sending land-based Air Force jet fighters to the Gulf would give the Pentagon leeway to move the Carl Vinson into the Arabian Sea, closer to Afghanistan, while maintaining enough aircraft to continue enforcing the "no fly" zone over southern Iraq. Airplanes aboard the Vinson have been making those patrols.

The United States is welcoming offers of military support from allies and friendly nations. Britain already has substantial forces in the Persian Gulf area as part of a long-planned joint exercise with Oman. This includes an aircraft carrier, four frigates, two destroyers, other ships and group troops. The Ministry of Defense says it is Britain's largest naval deployment since the 1982 Falklands War.