Field Marshal Lord Inge is reported to have told a private meeting of European experts last week that he did not believe there was a clear strategy for either mission. He also said he feared that British troops would suffer operational failure in Afghanistan.

General Dannatt, the Chief of the General Staff, who made his own concerns about Iraq public in an interview ten days ago when he called for British troops to be withdrawn “some time soon”, has been closely associated with Field Marshal Inge all his military career. They both served in The Green Howards Regiment. Lord Inge, also a former Chief of the General Staff, who retired as Chief of the Defence Staff in 1997, reportedly told a conference on European reform hosted by Open Europe, an independent think-tank: “I worry that the British Army could risk operational failure if we’re not careful in Afghanistan.”

Underlining his concerns, which were leaked to The Observer, Lord Inge is reported to have said: “I don’t believe we have a clear strategy in either Afghanistan or Iraq. I sense we’ve lost the ability to think strategically.”

But on a brief visit to Afghanistan yesterday, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said the Government fully understood what the Army had to achieve in Afghanistan and that those who believed that the challenges had been underestimated were “frankly wrong”.

In an interview with Sky’s Sunday with Adam Boulton, he said: “The Paras [now replaced by Royal Marines] and others fought the Taleban to a standstill there [in Helmand] and we are now reaping the benefit . . . it’s just a pity that they had to do that . . . we had hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary.”

He added: “The original strategy is still the strategy that we have set out to achieve and that was to concentrate our development in Helmand province where the majority of people live.”

He said that “by no stretch of the imagination” had that strategy been changed. He admitted, however, that British troops were “diverted” from focusing on central Helmand because the Taleban attacked the local government centres in the north of the province.

British officials in southern Iraq also insisted that the strategy of handing over security control to Iraqi forces was working. They said it was unlikely that troops would have to go back into al-Amarah, handed over to the Iraqis in August, after an outbreak of violence in the town, north of Basra. The area was now quiet with Iraqi forces in full control. One defence official said that it would be unfortunate if British troops had to go back in, not least because it would be seen by critics as a failure of the handover policy.

Kim Howells, Foreign Office Minister, predicted that the Iraqi forces could be ready to take over completely in less than a year. This view was not shared by Mr Browne, who stuck to the government line that British troops would stay until the job was done.

In Basra, soldiers from The Queen’s Royal Hussars met the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday as he made a surprise visit to the southern Iraqi city. Dressed in combat fatigues, Prince Philip, 85, said: “Everyone at home has been following what has been going on in this part of the world with a great deal of sympathy for those of you at the sharp end who are trying to do your best to make life civilised and tolerable for the locals.”

• Tony Blair confirmed yesterday that talks were under way to have a separate military ward for wounded troops at the NHS hospital at Selly Oak in Birmingham after criticism that injured personnel were being treated in civilian wards.

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