Cook admits 'troops need more time'

Robin Cook today conceded that British troops will need more training and more military intelligence before they are ready to fight a ground war in Afghanistan.

The admission from the Leader of the Commons signalled a retreat in the simmering row between the Government and the military over the state of readiness of British forces.

The apparent confusion at the highest level over Britain's war preparations was being addressed by Tony Blair today in his rallying speech in Cardiff.

A series of ministers have made upbeat claims about the preparations for war, most recently Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, who said yesterday that the Royal Marines "are immediately available for operations" in Afghanistan.

At the same time, military chiefs have pointed out the need for more preparation. Rear-Admiral James Burnell-Nugent, commander of the British task force earmarked for operations in Afghanistan, said it is not even clear yet whether British forces will be called on at all.

Mr Cook, the former Foreign Secretary, said today: "I think what the figures in the Armed Forces have been saying, which is possibly right, is that we should not enter into the ground attack until we know exactly what our targets are, and until our people are trained to do it and are ready to do it.

"That is precisely the point, as I understand it, that the commander on the ground was saying and of course he is absolutely right. Nobody is going to commit our troops until they are ready to do it and until we know the targets they are going to, until we are confident in that way."

He added: "This is the kind of judgment on which we will take advice from our military in the field."

Yesterday, Mr Hoon seemed to muddy the waters further when he sought to address the confusion over when UK troops will be ready to fight.

He said that Royal Marines who had just finished a training exercise in Oman "will need some time to prepare for any further operations", but added: "The Royal Marines ... remain at the very highest state of readiness. They will continue to maintain that state and I have no difficulty in saying that they are immediately available for operations."

However, Brigadier Roger Lane, commander of 3 Commando Brigade, has said: "We will be ready when suitable targets have been identified. We do not want to be too hasty, we want to be right."

Following the Oman exercise, about 250 Royal Marines from 40 Commando have been granted 10 days' leave at a beach resort, although they are on notice to leave at once if called upon to fight.

Robert Fox writes: There are growing signs that the Allies are laying plans to mount a major ground offensive in Afghanistan in the spring of next year to get rid of the Taliban regime and al Qaeda altogether.

The senior operational commander, General Tommy Franks of US Central Command, has persuaded the military chiefs-of-staff that America and its close allies must now adopt a mixture of conventional and unconventional tactics.

According to Pentagon sources, one of the options is to mount an air and land campaign to break the Taliban by the middle of next year.

Meanwhile, US bombers are now striking systems of caves in eastern Afghanistan where they believe Osama bin Laden is hiding and most of al Qaeda's arsenal is stored. This is despite some reports that suggest the Saudi renegade may have slipped over the frontier with Pakistan.

The air raids have, however, killed several of the "second tier" of the al Qaeda leadership, according to Mr Rumsfeld. "There is no question but that the Taliban and the al Qaeda people have been killed. To our knowledge none of the top six, eight, or 10 top people have been included in that," he told a Pentagon news briefing.

US defence experts say there could be hundreds, and possibly thousands, of underground tunnels and caves where Bin Laden and his military command have holed up for the winter.

It is thought that much of Bin Laden's force and command is now in Paktia. US bombers have been dropping 5,000lb laser-guided bunker-busting bombs, first used during Operation Desert Storm.