political news

The government has restated a target of removing UK troops from Afghanistan by 2014.

Leaked documents to a Sunday newspaper suggested a timetable for a phased transition to Afghan forces could begin within months.

But Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox said 2014 remained the target for the handover of security control to Afghan forces.

Earlier, it was revealed that aid to the country is to be increased by 40%.

During and interview on the Andrew Marr Show, the defence secretary refused to comment on the Independent on Sunday's report on an accelerated timetable for troop withdrawals.

"It has always been our aim to be successful in the mission, and the mission has always said that the Afghan national security forces would be able to deal with their own security by 2014," he said.

Blueprint for withdrawal

But he said only combat troops would be expected to be withdrawn at that time, with a continued presence likely for training.

Mr Cameron's aim of 2015 was "quite conservative by comparison", he said.

Dr Fox went on: "As you would expect I would not comment on any leaked document but a leaked draft document for a potential communique of a conference that hasn't yet happened is, I think, quite a leak."

It has been reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai will use a forthcoming international conference to publish a blueprint for the withdrawal of international troops by 2014.

Meanwhile, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell outlined plans to increase spending on aid projects in Afghanistan by 40%.

He told the Politics Show the government had been looking "very carefully" at the way money was being spent in Afghanistan.

"We've found some additional funding from less good programmes, so in principle we have an additional 40% money going into the development budget," he said.

It is believed the money for Afghanistan would be used to stabilise the most insecure areas, with more policing, emergency food and medicine, and thousands of job and training opportunities.

Shadow International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander called on the minister to clarify exactly how the aid money would be spent.

He said: "Thanks to the efforts of the last government, the UK was already the second-largest donor to Afghanistan and Helmand is already amongst the most heavily aided regions on earth.

"The primary challenge in those areas affected by the insurgency has not been a lack of money but a lack of security."

BBC deputy political editor James Landale said the government is "using foreign aid, not just to help people around the world but also to further British foreign policy".

"That's quite a change. It's also an answer, perhaps, to MPs who ask why aid budgets are being protected when so many others are being cut," said our correspondent.

The UK death toll in Afghanistan since operations began in 2001 now stands at 322, with four British serviceman dying since Friday.

At least three people were killed on Sunday by a suicide bomber in the Afghan capital Kabul.

The bombing came despite heightened security across Kabul ahead of the international conference of foreign ministers on Tuesday.

Foreign Secretary William Hague, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon are among those scheduled to attend.

The allegation came days after the US enacted unilateral sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme, to penalise foreign companies trading with Tehran.

Britain said it was not aware of any refusal to refuel Iranian planes, and Germany stressed there was no ban.

Oil firms contacted by the BBC said they could not comment on individual contracts.

Tehran says its nuclear industry is for peaceful purposes but Western powers fear it is trying to develop a bomb.

"Since last week, our planes have been refused fuel at airports in Britain, Germany and UAE because of the sanctions imposed by America," Mehdi Aliyari, secretary of the Iranian Airlines Union, told Iranian media.

He said the national carrier Iran Air and a private airline, Mahan Air, had both run into refuelling problems.

"Refusing to provide fuel to Iranian passenger planes by these countries is a violation of international conventions," he added.

Iranian lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh said Iran would retaliate.

"Iran will do the same to ships and planes of those countries that cause problems for us," Iran's Isna news agency quoted him as saying.

A spokeswoman for the Abu Dhabi Airports Company (ADAC), which manages the airports in the UAE cities of Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, told Reuters news agency the company was continuing to refuel Iranian jets.

"We have contracts with Iranian passenger flights and continue to allow refuelling," she added.

But AFP news agency quoted "a source close to the aviation sector in the UAE" as saying there had been a problem with an unnamed international fuel supplier.

"A servicing company which provides fuelling at several airports around the world has refused to provide Iranian planes with fuel, including at UAE terminals," the source said on condition of anonymity.

A spokesman for the UK's Civil Aviation Authority told the BBC any move to withhold fuel would be down to individual fuel companies.

Germany's transport ministry said the refuelling of Iranian planes was not banned under EU or UN sanctions but it would not comment on whether any individual providers were refusing to fuel Iranian aircraft.

The US sanctions prohibit the sale or provision to Iran of refined petroleum products worth more than $5m (£3.3m) over a year.

Paul Reynolds, world affairs correspondent for the BBC News website, said it might be that fuel companies are worried that their sales over a year might add up to $5m, in which case they could face a possible ban on doing business in the US.

An Iranian aviation official said Iranian airliners were filling up with as much fuel as possible inside Iran.

But they were also having to refuel in countries along their route not imposing a ban, a move which the official said was doubling costs.

The new US sanctions were signed into law by President Barack Obama last week.

Last month, the UN Security Council voted to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Tehran for failing to halt its nuclear enrichment programme.

The Wall Street Journal said Israel's ability to strike Iranian nuclear facilities could be hampered.

The system would also boost Syria's defences and could benefit Lebanese militant group Hezbollah if Syria shared information, the report said.

Syria and Iran have denied that the radar transfer took place.

An unnamed Israeli military official has told the Reuters news agency that Syria, Israel's northern neighbour, has received a radar system from Iran, but declined to give further details.

Four unnamed US and Israeli officials told the Wall Street Journal that the radar system had been transferred to Syria in mid-2009.

They said it was part of the growing alliance between Iran, Syria and Hezbollah that aimed to undermine Israel's military dominance in the region.

In April, tensions between the US and Syria worsened after Israeli allegations that Syria had transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla movement and political party. Syria denies the claims.

Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis died.

A year later, Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian site that the Israelis said housed a nuclear reactor in the final stages of construction. Syria said it was a defunct military facility.

Tensions in the region are high after Iran vowed to continue its uranium enrichment activities despite a fourth round of sanctions imposed last month by the UN over claims that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme.

Under earlier UN sanctions imposed in 2007, Iran is banned from selling or supplying weapons to other countries.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

The director of the CIA has conceded that the war in Afghanistan has been "harder and slower" than expected.

Speaking on US television Leon Panetta said while progress had been made in Afghanistan, serious problems with governance, corruption and the Taliban insurgency remained.

Mr Panetta's comments come as Gen David Petraeus takes over command of multinational forces in Afghanistan, following the sacking of Gen Stanley McChrystal.

Gen McChrystal was dismissed last week over critical comments about senior US officials.

Speaking to ABC This Week programme Mr Panetta insisted that "the fundamental key is whether the Afghans accept responsibility" for taking over the battle against the insurgency once foreign troops pull out of the country.

Drones defended

Mr Panetta defended CIA drone strikes on senior al-Qaeda of Taleban leaders in the region, saying that claims they violate international law are "dead wrong".

"We have a duty, we have a responsibility, to defend this country so that al-Qaeda never conducts that kind of attack again," he said.

Mr Panetta said that al-Qaida was probably at its weakest since the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

He said 50 to 100 militants were operating inside Afghanistan and the rest hiding along Pakistan's mountainous western border region.

"We are engaged in the most aggressive operations in the history of the CIA in that part of the world, and the result is that we are disrupting their leadership," Panetta told ABC television.

He said the US had not had good intelligence on Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts for years.

Mr Panetta said that the al-Qaeda network was finding new ways to try to attack the United States. Of greatest concern, he said, was al-Qaida's reliance on operatives without previous records or those living in the US.

Spain is taking the right measures for economic stability, the head of the International Monetary Fund has said.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he was "confident" Spain's economy would recover and called on all Spaniards to back the government's austerity work.

He was speaking after a meeting in Madrid with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Mr Zapatero had earlier denied his government was seeking an IMF bailout, but markets have been nervous.

Mr Zapatero said on Thursday that Spain's economy was solid and solvent, and the visit by Dominique Strauss-Kahn was a scheduled one.

Mr Strauss-Kahn said all the measures being put in place by the Spanish government were "clearly being done for the benefit of the economy".

"I am really confident in the medium and long-term prospects for the Spanish economy, providing the efforts that have to be made will be made," he added.

He specifically praised continuing efforts to liberalise the Spanish labour market, saying they went in "the right direction".

Mr Zapatero said that during the meeting he had conveyed to Mr Strauss-Kahn "the determination of the Spanish government to implement and to make effective every single one of these reforms that we have launched".

Mr Zapatero's government recently introduced a package of spending cuts and a reform of the labour market in an attempt to persuade nervous financial markets that Spain's finances are under control.

However, that's a difficult task, as after the crisis in Greece, the financial markets have been concerned that Spain could be the next country to require outside financial assistance.

As a result, Spain is having to pay record rates to sell its debt, and this week a senior banker revealed that Spanish financial institutions are struggling to get funding on international markets.

Spain is now promising to publish the results of what are known as "stress tests" on its banks, to prove that any fears of their failure are unfounded.

The country is still reeling from the collapse of the construction sector, has a budget deficit of 11%, and one in five workers is unemployed.

To help reduce the jobless count, the Spanish government wishes to liberalise labour laws that currently deter Spanish firms from taking on full-time staff because of the difficulty of making redundancies.

However, this has already faced strong opposition from unions, who are threatening to hold a general strike in September.