The Pentagon wants Britain to use troops withdrawn from Iraq to reinforce Nato’s mission in Afghanistan, despite strong misgivings in the Ministry of Defence.

Speaking before a meeting of defence ministers representing the eight countries fighting in southern Afghanistan, Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said America was sending thousands more troops and expected other allies to do the same.

The MoD has said that the present 8,100-strong force in southern Afghanistan is the ceiling as far as Britain is concerned, but defence officials acknowledged for the first time yesterday that this limit might be breached in due course, and that an increase in numbers had not been ruled out.

A presidential review of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, completed this week, is expected to call for more troops to be sent to the country. Barack Obama, the President-elect, has promised to make the war there a priority of his administration and plans a “surge” of forces.

The Pentagon intends to send between 15,000 and 20,000 more troops to augment the 33,000 there.

Britain insists that it is already “stretched” with the troops it has in the volatile Helmand province. The Pentagon pointed out, however, that the reduction of some 4,000 British soldiers in Iraq could free additional forces for the Afghan campaign.

“As Britain scales down in Iraq, hopefully they will be able to contribute more troops to Afghanistan,” Mr Morrell told The Times.

The issue was being raised at Cornwallis, near the Canadian town of Halifax, where ministers from Britain, America, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands and Romania – all with troops serving in Nato’s Regional Command South - began discussions yesterday on recapturing the initiative from the Taleban in southern Afghanistan.

Mr Morrell said that new tactics under discussion included fighting the counter-insurgency war regionally rather than provincially. This could change the way that British Forces, who are largely confined to Helmand, will operate in the future.

John Hutton, the Defence Secretary, is expected to make clear that there is no plan at this stage to transfer troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff and the Government’s top military adviser, has already stipulated that there must be no “one-for-one” switch in troops to Helmand once the 4,100-strong presence in Iraq is cut back next May.

Defence sources, however, said that Sir Jock was indicating that there was no question of transferring all 4,000 from Iraq to Afghanistan, but with Britain committed long-term to Afghanistan, it would not be possible to maintain 8,100 troops as a ceiling for ever.

Provincial elections in Iraq on January 31 are crucial to the timing of British troop withdrawal from the region.

Major-General Andy Salmon, the UK Commander in Basra, said that if the Iraqi 14th Division, which controls Basra, managed the elections well, “we will be in a position after that to say that we are pretty much there”. He told The Daily Telegraph: “If the election goes well then our job is heading towards being done.”

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