WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health officials have acquired 220,000 doses of anthrax vaccine previously owned by the Pentagon, holding the inoculations in case the anthrax outbreak worsens and civilians need it.

No decision has been made that anyone needs to be vaccinated, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

But if the CDC decides it's necessary, the Food and Drug Administration will allow vaccination of workers, such as laboratory personnel, who might be exposed to the bacteria or where antibiotics given to the recently exposed fail.

The CDC wanted to have the vaccine on hand -- and not have to negotiate with the Defense Department, which previously owned all supplies -- in case there was a need to vaccinate people quickly.

Now, should public health officials decide anyone in the country needs vaccinating, "all of the pieces are in place to move when those decisions are made,'' said CDC's Dr. Bradley Perkins.

The CDC has considered inoculating about 1,000 laboratory workers and field investigators who have handled anthrax in the wake of this fall's bioterror attack.

More controversial would be if the CDC decides others, such as postal workers, need the shots. The CDC has been concerned that workers in the Washington postal facility most contaminated with anthrax have not adhered to the 60-day antibiotic prescriptions they were given to protect them against anthrax. Anthrax spores can silently incubate in the body for up to 60 days before causing illness.

No one knows if a vaccine would work after someone was infected, but if any new anthrax infections pop among those postal workers, the CDC wanted the vaccine on hand to try.

Only one company, BioPort Corp. in Lansing, Mich., makes anthrax vaccine, and those supplies were earmarked for the Pentagon. But BioPort has been unable to ship any since 1998 because its renovated factory has not met FDA safety standards, so the military has been holding quarantined doses.

To work, the vaccine requires six shots given over 18 months.