Afghanistan spending to rise in last throw of defence dice

A Ministry of Defence green paper, setting out the Government's framework for a post-election strategic defence review, said funding from the Treasury reserve for operations in Afghanistan would increase from 3.5bn this year to 5bn next year but Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth made clear savings would have to be found in future years to try to tackle the 178bn national deficit.

The green paper also stated Britain would need to co-operate more with allies like France in order to provide the full range of defence capabilities.

The plans were attacked by the Tories who claimed Britain's national security was being put at risk by the Government's economic mismanagement.

Mr Ainsworth said not a penny would be cut from next year's budget but future programmes faced "real financial pressure".

"Tough choices will lie ahead and we need to rebalance our budget to better reflect our priorities," he added.

The green paper said resources across government would be "constrained".

While the paper emphasised that the United States remained Britain's most important ally, the UK would in future have to look to co-operate more widely with other countries.

It states: "In Europe, the return of France to Nato's integrated military structures offers an opportunity for even greater co-operation with a key partner across a range of defence activity."

Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox said: "That our nation's security should be compromised by Labour's historic economic incompetence is truly a national tragedy."