Britain is spearheading international talks on a two-phase operation to clear and reopen the Strait of Hormuz once fighting subsides, defence officials have said.

The reported plan centres on deploying Royal Navy vessels equipped with torpedo-shaped mine-hunting drones to sweep Iranian ordnance from the narrow waterway separating the Persian Gulf from the Gulf of Oman.

Once the strait is declared safe, a multinational escort mission involving both crewed and uncrewed ships would shepherd merchant vessels back through the chokepoint to restore global trade flows.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, chief of the defence staff, chaired a Sunday meeting of senior defence officials from France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada to advance the planning.

Starstreak armed Stormer air defence battery from Royal Artillery being unloaded from a C-17