A former senior Army officer today accused ministers of being "very careless" with the military and of having "lacked interest" in improving resources.

Major-General Arthur Denaro, who has now retired, said that the country had also failed to play its part in backing the under-resourced Armed Forces due to the unpopularity of the war in Iraq.

His comments come as General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, was set to claim in a speech tonight that soldiers were finding that they had to add civilian skills - from town hall administration to banking - to their traditional combat capabilities.

The Head of the Army will demand that soldiers are in future assisted by a new squad of “stabilisation specialists” who spend their careers assisting the military in working to rebuild countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Major-General Denaro was heavily critical of the role played by the Government in the Army's problems.

“I believe the Government has been very careless and lacked interest and hasn’t put in enough resources," he said.

“The nation has not really supported the Armed Forces because largely it’s been an unpopular war lately.

“And up until our new CDS (Chief of the Defence Staff), our current CDS, senior officers have been less robust than they should have been.”

In his speech tonight to the Progress thinktank in Westminster, General Dannatt will demand that the forces should now look at the feasibility of civilian staff - who he described as "stabilisation specialists” - working alongside soldiers to help with reconstruction in an effort to learn the lessons of Iraq.

He will say that an officer in such a body could typically spend “a tour with indigenous forces, followed perhaps by an attachment to DfID (Department for International Development) overseas, or a local council at home, or a police force in Africa or elsewhere”.

Gen Dannatt will also emphasise the importance of ensuring that troops are properly trained to deal with the “ethical challenges” they are likely to face in future conflicts.

“Sensitivity to culture, local beliefs and aspirations, and the soldier’s personal demeanour and approach, are all vital parts of campaigning today,” he will say. "If we compromise our moral values, then we will lose what is essentially a conflict of values and ideas.”

He will say that when “inexcusable” incidents, such as the death of Baha Mousa in the custody of British troops in Iraq in 2003, occur, British forces risk losing the “moral high ground”.

“I take no pride in the conduct of those of our people - however few - who took it upon themselves to deliberately abuse Iraqi civilians during 2003,” he will say.

Meanwhile, the Government was today set to act on one of the biggest complaints of soldiers and their families and increase compensation for UK Armed Forces personnel seriously injured in operations from £285,000 to £570,000.

The measure forms part of the Service Personnel Command Paper, which the MoD hopes will address serious long-standing concerns within the military, particularly on family issues.

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