UK 'must complete Afghan mission'

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Mr Hutton did not rule out adding further to Britain's commitment in Afghanistan, following Prime Minister Gordon Brown's announcement last week of a increase by around 300 to 8,300 troops in the country.

But he pointed out that Britain already provides the second largest contribution to Nato's ISAF security force in Afghanistan, after the Americans.

Up to 30,000 new American troops are expected to be sent to Afghanistan in the months after Mr Obama's inauguration in January, and the new President is thought likely to ask Nato allies to increase their own contributions.

Asked what Britain's response to any such request would be, Mr Hutton told Sky News' Sunday Live: "I'm not going to speculate about future force levels, because we act on the advice we receive from service chiefs and our friends and allies around the world.

"As the Prime Minister has said, of course we would look at any request for additional forces seriously."

Mr Hutton added: "We haven't received any such request yet. When we receive such a request obviously we would look at it very, very carefully. We need more security in Afghanistan, that's quite clear. We would all like to see more progress in Afghanistan - on the political and economy side as well - so we have all got to think about this over the coming year."

Mr Hutton insisted that the international forces were "making headway" in Afghanistan, and said the UK needs to "see this mission through".

He said: "I do think we should be prepared to see this mission through, because first and foremost it is about UK national security. We can't allow the terrorists to get hold of Afghanistan again because we know what would happen. They would have a safe haven to launch their terrorist attacks against us."

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: "We shouldn't rule out sending more troops to Afghanistan, but we have got to bear in mind that the British troops have borne a disproportionate share of the burden so far and many other Nato nations have not engaged in the serious fighting British troops have had to do."