[Sundae]

The upcoming NATO meeting in Riga should hopefully lead to better coordination of efforts in Afghanistan rather than what seems a rather piecemeal approach at present.

Certainly Britain and Germany are already committed to rebuilding projects - but of course it's difficult to provide aid in areas where fighting is still at it's peak. We've been sniped at - verbally - by both Pakistani and Afghani politicians for not providing enough aid, but stability has to come first. You can't just pour money into a hole in the ground and hope things will get better - the infrastructure has to be there.

In the Helmand province, Britain has built 13 health clinics, 89 reservoirs, 423 wells and eight classrooms. But if you build in areas where the Taleban would rather blow things up than see conditions improve for their own countrymen it's going to be a long and expensive slog.