Prime Minister Brown writes to MP Russell

12.00.00am GMT Tue 8th Jan 2008

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has written a personal letter to Colchester MP Bob Russell following the Premier's statement to the House of Commons last month about military operations in Afghanistan which was challenged by Mr Russell.

With the Colchester-based 16 Air Assault Brigade shortly to be deployed to Afghanistan, the town's MP asked the Prime Minister how many countries out of the 38 mentioned as being represented there had actually had soldiers serving in the front line of Helmand Province against the Taliban. Mr Brown promised that he would write to Mr Russell, and this week he received the Prime Minister's response in which it was stated that only six of the 38 countries had done so.

The Prime Minister told Mr Russell: "Out of the 38, six have taken part in combat operations within Helmand Province - the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, the USA and the UK. In addition the Afghan National Army provides a considerable number of troops."

Mr Brown added that the current non-Afghan military strength in Afghanistan is around 43,000 personnel. "The UK is the second largest contributor with around 7,800 personnel, of which roughly 4,500 are in Helmand Province."

Mr Russell, who is a member of the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Defence team, said he was grateful to the Prime Minister for providing the detailed information which had been absent when he made his Afghanistan statement to the House of Commons last month. He has previously criticised other countries for not contributing front-line troops.

Today Mr Russell said: "I remain of the view that democratic countries around the world, who talk about tackling global terrorism, should do more to take an active role by committing troops to the front line. I am particularly disappointed that so few European countries are doing so. It is worth noting that the UK is the only large European country to deploy troops to Helmand Province."