Miliband defends terror budgets

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Funding for counter-terrorism projects in Pakistan is not being cut, Foreign Secretary David Miliband has insisted.

While the Foreign Office budget was "under pressure", counter-terrorism activities were a priority, he said.

Foreign Office minister Lady Kinnock suggested last week that some projects in Pakistan had been axed because of a fall in the value of sterling.

After the threat level to the UK was raised on Friday, Mr Miliband said "extremely vigilance" was required.

Budget pressures

However, he refused to say whether the decision to raise the threat level to severe - suggesting an attack was highly likely - was taken on the basis of specific intelligence.

The Conservatives said they supported the government's decision, given emerging details of the threats facing the country.

The government is hosting a major international conference on the future of Afghanistan in London on Thursday.

The government was forced onto the defensive last week when Foreign Office minister Lady Kinnock said the budget for counter-terrorism activities had not risen by "as much as hoped".

The money we are devoting to counter-terrorism in Pakistan is rising, not falling David Miliband

The Foreign Office faced a budget shortfall in 2010-11, she said, and as a result a "small number" of its least effective projects, including some in Pakistan, would be scaled back or axed completely.

With about 50% of the Foreign Office's funding paid in foreign currency, it has been hit by the decline in sterling's value. It had been cushioned against the falling pound by a special fund until it was axed in 2007.

Coming a day after Prime Minister Gordon Brown told MPs that the Afghan-Pakistan border was the "crucible of international terrorism", opposition parties said the prospect of funding cuts risked undermining national security.

But Mr Miliband insisted on Sunday that funding for counter-terrorism projects in Pakistan was protected.

"The money were are devoting to counter-terrorism in Pakistan is rising, not falling," he told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One. "The money we are devoting to counter-terrorism globally is rising not falling," he said.

But he added: "It is true that the overall Foreign Office budget is under a lot of pressure because we buy 120 foreign currencies and we're paid by the Treasury in pounds."

Threat level

Reacting to reports that Osama Bin Laden had claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing of a transatlantic flight on Christmas Day, Mr Miliband said people should reserve judgement until it was clear the claim of Al-Qaeda involvement was genuine.

But he said the attempted Detroit bombing highlighted the dangers that still existed and the "links" that existed between terrorist groups around the world.

"These people will stop at nothing," he said. "They will try every trick in the book."

He defended the decision to raise the security threat level in the UK to its second highest level, saying people had a right to be kept informed.

"We keep the terrorist threat to the UK under very careful scrutiny," he added. "It remains the case that we need to be extremely vigilant."

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling said he supported the decision in light of the Detroit plot and information coming to light about terrorist training camps in Yemen.