Brown and Bush Line Up Ashdown for Role in Linking Afghan Aid and Military Effort

Gordon Brown and President George Bush are expected in the next week to bring some badly needed coordination to aid and military effort in Afghanistan by appointing Lord Ashdown as super-envoy to the country. Brown is set to make the announcement to MPs before the Commons rises for Christmas in what is seen as a statement of his foreign policy approach to the fight against terrorism.

Ministers are looking at a three- to five-year plan, a proposal due to be discussed by defense secretaries, including the US defense secretary, Robert Gates, at a Nato-led International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF) meeting in Edinburgh next week. The meeting involves all the countries militarily involved in Regional Command South in Afghanistan.

Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, is being asked to coordinate the roles of the UN and Nato for the first time, and is likely to pursue a political settlement that requires some resolution between the government of Hamid Karzai and the less extreme elements of the Taliban. Ashdown is known to be gloomy about the prospect of success in Afghanistan unless there is far greater cohesion between aid agencies, armies and foreign governments.

Previously a successful UN envoy to Bosnia between 2002 and 2006, he has pointed out that Afghanistan is receiving a 20th of the military effort and a 50th of the aid money that was put into Bosnia.

The new post would replace the UN's special representative to Kabul, Tom Koenigs, and Nato's civilian representative, Daan Everts, a Dutch diplomat, who by coincidence both complete their terms on December 31.

The issue was first raised in the summer, but the US at the time seemed reluctant to integrate the posts or see the post based in Kabul.

Ashdown has been in discussions about the terms of his appointment, and so far Whitehall and Washington have met his conditions.

The appointment of Ashdown at 66 is a risk since he tends to speak his mind and has been driving a hard bargain over his powers, including the need for the US Operation Enduring Freedom to coordinate its military efforts more closely with the rest of Nato military operations.

However, the US has been impressed by Ashdown's success in Bosnia, and thinks he is the right man for the job.

One Whitehall source said: "The US wants a decision quickly, but Brown wants to make sure his hands are on the appointment and there is a clear agreement on strategy. Whitehall has been told that if we go on as we are, perhaps we could succeed, but we could definitely fail."

Ashdown's appointment also suggests that Britain and the US are likely to take a more emollient stance towards a political settlement. Ashdown has said he believes the west needs to scale back its political ambitions to establish a western-style democracy in the country.

Ashdown has been a strong opponent of the proposed US policy of aerial spraying of poppy crops. Opium production has reached record levels, flooding the western market with heroin and leaving Afghan farmers dependent on warlords and the Taliban for income.

In total there are 40,000 ISAF forces in the country, but the British would like to see a move away from air strikes to a counterinsurgency approach adopted with relative success by the US in Iraq .

Gates said yesterday he was looking at such a plan by providing arms to local tribes, along with training, equipment and other support. The Foreign Office has said that it would like to see greater coordination of the aid effort in Afghanistan. Since 2001 Afghanistan has received more than $15bn (£7.2bn) in assistance.

Oxfam has claimed in evidence to the international development select committee that of all technical assistance to Afghanistan, which accounts for a quarter of all aid to the country, only one tenth is coordinated among donors or with the government.

The US agency for international development, USAID, provides Afghanistan with $1.4bn a year, but allocates close to half its funds to the five largest US contractors in the country, partly to minimize the risk of corruption. Overall some two thirds of US foreign assistance bypasses the Afghan government that officials say they want to strengthen.