Britain ready to send 300 more troops to help 'surge' in Afghanistan

Britain is preparing to send 300 more troops to Afghanistan, which could mark the extent of its contribution to the US-led “surge”.

Britain will deploy the specialist troops within weeks in a move being seen as an attempt to head off any larger request for British forces from President Obama.

The new US Administration had been expected by some British officials to request a whole battle group of 1,500 troops, and plans had been sketched out by senior military figures to send two 700-strong combat battalions.

Gordon Brown will not want to disappoint the US President over the issue as European heads of state fight it out to become the first to meet him in the White House. As The Times revealed in December, however, the Prime Minister is cautious about committing significant numbers above the 8,300 British troops already taking part in the Nato effort because of the cost and casualties.

Some ministers believe that the 300 troops that Parliament will be told about within weeks will mark the limit of Britain's additional engagement in the region. The troops will be skilled in clearing roadside explosives. The Ministry of Defence says that 80 per cent of British troops killed in Afghanistan are the victims of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The Government says that no final decisions have been made on whether further troops will join the surge. Mr Brown announced that he had already sent an additional 300 before Christmas, which at the time was hoped by some in Government to be enough to avoid a further commitment.

Britain has said repeatedly that other Nato allies should make a bigger contribution to Afghanistan, with John Hutton, the Defense Secretary, reiterating the plea at a conference at the weekend. “Combat forces, that is a most precious contribution right now to that campaign,” he told defense chiefs in Munich. “We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions are as important.”

Last week it was reported that Italy would send more troops to Afghanistan, raising the current deployment of 2,000 troops to 2,800. The Italian Government may also drop restrictions on the deployment of its soldiers.

At the same conference David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, admitted that Britain and its Nato allies were stuck in a stalemate with the Taliban.

The US has not yet revealed what its new aims are for Afghanistan. Much effort has been put in by Nato forces in shoring up the presidency of Hamid Karzai and regional governors. However, relations between the Obama Administration and President Karzai are poor. Mr Obama said recently that the Afghan Government was detached from the surrounding communities it was supposed to serve.

Ministers believe that much of the surge could be directed at the mountainous region that borders Pakistan and is believed to harbor al-Qaeda. There are already signs of a build-up of US troops at two bases in southern Afghanistan, they say.

Afghanistan will be one of the foreign policy priorities of the forthcoming Italian presidency of the G8. Rome believes that Nato's credibility is on the line and wants to call an international conference on stability in the region.

It will invite China, India, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey to join G8 members in shaping a new strategy and impressing on the Afghans the need to take more responsibility for their security.