Miliband: 'Hard look' at troops plea

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Mr Miliband said the Government was waiting to see what the new US administration's strategy would be.

He told the Daily Telegraph "If there are requests for help - economic, social or military - we'll look at them hard.

"We've never been in blanket refusal... But the British people don't want to feel it's always us who gets the nod; they want to know that others will do it."

He was speaking after it was announced that two Royal Marines were killed in action during an attack by insurgents to the north-west of Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand.

Asked if he understood public concerns that the troops were fighting a hopeless war, he said: "The test is whether Britain would be safer if we pulled out now. If the international coalition did that, Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban, and the country that incubated terrorism would become the incubator again."

He added that troops serving in the country must have "the best possible equipment".