Nato ready for deployment of UK troops in Afghanistan

Britain’s Defence Secretary John Reid will meet tomorrow his colleagues - NATO defence ministers in a Berlin hotel to prepare the ground for the biggst deployment of British troops since the invasion of Iraq.

In public, the ministers are likely to play down the significance of their meeting; but privately, defence officials say it will be important in paving the way for the deployment of some 4,000 British troops in Afghanistan in May next year.

Britain, which will also deploy Apache helicopters for the first time, has agreed to take charge of NATO's expanding role in a country facing more attacks from Taliban recruits, Guardian reports.