Brown offers to host talks on Afghanistan withdrawal

INTERNATIONAL talks in London could be used to set a “clear timetable” for the handover of power in Afghanistan, the key to bringing troops home, Gordon Brown suggested last night.

The prime minister outlined plans for a summit in the capital in January, as he delivered the latest in a series of vigorous defences of Britain’s military involvement in the country.

He used his annual Guildhall foreign policy speech to say the security chiefs believed there was an opportunity to inflict “significant and long-lasting damage to al-Qaida”.