The British Royal Navy has been training Iraqi marines to help protect key Iraqi oil facilities in the Persian Gulf.

The Royal Navy's Captain Guy Robinson makes an official statement on air.

"We recognise there's a significant threat to these terminals either to threat to the coalition or indeed to disrupt the life blood of Iraq through stopping oil flow from these terminals and we've put in place a number of measures to both deter or in fact defeat that threat,"

The Royal Navy help new recruits to practice by staging mock attacks on their boats, as well as giving them target practice by driving past the terminals at speed.

Basra has faced fierce clashes since recent fighting between government security forces and Shiite militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

One official says that after the attacks the whole system has to be shut down for a while to allow firefighters to extinguish fires and to determine the damages in the system.

Officials say that security measures have been concentrated in and around all oil pipelines, fields and other installations to guarantee security.

Both al-Basra and Khor al-Amaya oil terminals have been the victims of past militant attacks.