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— WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has scrapped plans to move U.S. troops through Turkey into northern Iraq and instead will send the 4th Infantry Division from Texas to Kuwait to join a thrust into embattled Iraq from the south, U.S. officials said on Saturday.

Abandonment of the use of Turkey to open a planned "northern front" in the Iraq war follows its refusal to provide transit rights for as many as 62,000 American troops into Iraq.

The U.S. military will as early as this weekend begin moving about 20 cargo ships loaded with equipment for the 4th Infantry Division from where they have been waiting for weeks off the coast of Turkey through the Suez Canal toward the Gulf, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

The infantry division and other supporting military units totaling up to 40,000 or more troops are expected to be flown from Fort Hood, Texas, and other bases to join the armor and equipment in Kuwait, the officials told Reuters.

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