Britain is to send up to 1,000 extra troops to boost Nato's Afghanistan force. The deployment will take the UK's commitment to more than 9,000 but the additional troops will only be there temporarily to provide security for August elections and will not fight with US troops in combat missions.

The Independent has learnt that efforts to reinforce President Barack Obama's "surge" permanently were met with disagreement within the British Government. It is understood British commanders wanted to send 2,000 to 3,000 more troops to Afghanistan to fight with American reinforcements of 21,000.

But fundamental differences erupted between the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and Downing Street over the strategy to adopt for Afghanistan. The Treasury objected to the additional costs of a fresh deployment.

...The new British offer is also conditional on other Nato countries committing forces. The announcement came as Mr Brown touched down in Strasbourg for the two-day Nato summit and was seen as an attempt to bounce reluctant nations, including the summit's hosts, France and Germany, into pledging a significant contribution to the military operation.