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The US has dispatched an aircraft carrier and bomber task force to the Middle East after receiving "clear indications" that Iran was preparing to possibly attack US forces in the region, Sky News reports.

National security adviser John Bolton said the move to deploy the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the Gulf was in response to "a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings".

He did not provide details, but said the US wanted to send a message that "unrelenting force" would meet any attack on US interests or those of its allies.

"The United States is not seeking war with the Iranian regime, but we are fully prepared to respond to any attack, whether by proxy, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or regular Iranian forces," he said.

The Abraham Lincoln and its strike group of ships and combat aircraft have been taking part in training operations in the Mediterranean Sea.

President Trump's administration has been increasing pressure on the Iranian government after withdrawing from a landmark nuclear deal last year and more recently blacklisting the country's Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

Washington has also said it will end exemptions from sanctions for five countries - China, India, Japan, South Korea and Turkey - that are still buying Iranian oil.