Brown under pressure as minister confesses: ‘We don’t have enough helicopters’

The Prime Minister came under more pressure to deliver extra machines after Foreign Office minister Lord Malloch-Brown declared: "We definitely don't have enough helicopters." His comment infuriated No. 10, where officials dismissed him as "out of the loop" and "ill-informed", even though Afghanistan is part of his ministerial responsibilities.

Within a few hours, Lord Malloch-Brown issued a full retraction, which he described as a "clarification" of his views. In a statement that was said to have been issued at the behest of Downing Street, he claimed he had meant that there were "without doubt sufficient resources in place for current operations", although "we should always do what we can to make more available on the front line".

Retiring Army chief General Sir Richard Dannatt highlighted the shortage and armed forces head Sir Jock Stirrup confirmed that casualties could be avoided by more helicopters.

At his regular monthly press conference later, the Prime Minister was repeatedly forced to defend the prosecution of the Afghanistan war against complaints about shortages of equipment and helicopters in particular.

He insisted that Army commanders had all they had requested for the current mission, Operation Panther's Claw, but acknowledged there were calls for "more helicopters in general".

He said extra Merlin helicopters would be deployed later this year.

"I am satisfied that Operation Panther's Claw has the resources it needs to be successful," he said.

"I think the fact that it is making progress at the moment and yielding results already shows that is the case. I am confident that we will bring this operation to a successful outcome."

The war strategy also came under fire from former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, who said the Army had been treated like "the armed wing of the Islington Labour Party". Lord Ashdown said that what should only have been a swift mission to destroy terrorist freedom to operate in Afghanistan had been tainted by "mission creep" and expanded to include the impossible aims of building a Western-style democracy.

Mr Brown reacted cautiously to a proposal by Lord Ashdown that any Taliban leaders who renounced violence should be invited to play a role in Afghanistan.