Britain's Armed Forces Minister, Mr John Spellar, admitted yesterday that the global reach of the government's ethical foreign policy had put the army under budgetary and organisational "pressure", as he prepared to open an inquiry into the leaking of documents which suggested British soldiers were hampered by unreliable weapons during the Kosovo crisis.
The government is under pressure from the Conservatives to explain "the crisis of over-stretch" after two senior British army officers concluded that the army's lack of preparedness as part of the Kfor force in Kosovo could have had serious consequences in the event of an attack by retreating Serb forces.
The frank admission from the minister came as he accepted that radio equipment used by British soldiers in Kosovo was old and in need of repair and that light machineguns were not satisfactory. "We are under some pressure as a result of a considerable range of operations in the last year, all of those dictated by outside events, all of those absolutely right to undertake, particularly in Kosovo and East Timor.
"But we do accept that is putting pressure on our budget and obviously we are in discussions with the Treasury on that," he told BBC Radio 4. "We inherited a horrendous over-run, tremendous problems. . . that is putting pressure on to the budget along with the tempo of operations."
The Ministry of Defence has pointed out that the Kosovo campaign was a complete success and in an attempt to limit the damage done by the leaks has stressed that the brief to those commanders who took part in the assessment was to be as critical as possible.
Offering a positive spin on the leaks, Mr Spellar described the entire assessment of the campaign by British commanders as "extremely positive, extremely upbeat" and honest in its appraisal of where improvements could be made.
Gen. Sir Mike Jackson, the former commander of NATO forces in Kosovo, cast doubt on the validity of the criticisms of British capability in the field when he suggested many of the comments were "difficult to recognise" from his own experience.
"It is important to understand, I think, that such reports are the partial view of the commander who writes them. It's his perspective. It may not necessarily be the complete perspective, and the overall context is essential."
The leaked documents, written by Lieut. Col Paul Gibson, commanding officer of the Parachute Regiment's 1st Battalion, and Brig Ian Freer, commander of the 5th Airborne Brigade, were compiled as part of an overall assessment of the army's performance during the Kosovo campaign.
The documents claimed that at any one time during the campaign up to a third of personal radio equipment was broken, guns were "unreliable" and light machineguns performed below recommended levels.
The Conservative defence spokesman, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, seized on the minister's admission by accusing the government of undermining the armed forces while simultaneously increasing Britain's military commitments around the world.