U.S. PREPARED TO ESCORT KUWAITI TANKERS The United States has offered Navy warships to escort Kuwaiti oil tankers into and out of the Gulf where they could be threatened by new Iranian anti-ship missiles, U.S. defense officials said today. "We believe the Kuwaitis have also approached the Soviet Union about the possibility of using Soviet tankers" to ship their oil, one of the officials told Reuters. "But if there is superpower protection, we would rather it come from us," the official said. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said Kuwait had asked about possible protection for a dozen vessels, most of them oil tankers, which could be supplied by three U.S. Navy guided missile destroyers and two guided missile frigates now in the southern part of the Gulf. "We told them we would give them help and we are waiting to hear the Kuwaiti response to our offer," one official said. In addition to a half dozen ships in the U.S. Navy's small Mideast Task Force near the Straits of Hormuz, the Pentagon has moved 18 warships -- including the Aircraft Carrier Kitty Hawk -- into the northern Indian Ocean in the past month. White House and defense officials said today that massing of the fleet was routine and had nothing to do with the Iran-Iraq war or Iran's recent stationing of Chinese-made anti-ship missiles near the mouth of the Gulf. The land-based missiles have increased concern in Kuwait and other Middle East countries that their oil shipments might be affected. Several hundred vessels have been confirmed hit in the Gulf by Iran and Iraq since early 1984. White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater told reporters today that it was in the U.S. strategic interest to keep the free flow of oil in the gulf and through the Straits of Hormuz. But he said U.S. ships in the region were on routine maneuvers. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on Sunday declined to discuss specifics, but said the United States would do whatever was necessary to keep the Gulf shipping open in the face of new Iranian anti-ship missiles in the region. "We are fully prepared to do what's necessary to keep the shipping going and keep the freedom of navigation available in that very vital waterway of the world," he said on NBC television's "Meet the Press." The State Department said Friday Iran has been informed about U.S. concern over the threat to oil shipments in the Gulf. The communciation was sent through Switzerland, which represents American interests in Iran. Iran on Sunday denied as baseless reports that it intended to threaten shipping in the gulf and warned the United States that any interference in the region would meet a strong response from Tehran, Tehran Radio said. An Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, quoted in a broadcast monitored by the BBC in London, said reports that Iran intends to threaten shipping in the Gulf were baseless. "In conjunction with this misleading propaganda, America has already paved the ground to achieve its expansionist and hegemonistic intentions, aiming to build up its military presence in the region," he was quoted as saying.