Afghans must be free to set laws that clash with western values and legal principles if order is to be established in the country, Des Browne, the UK defence secretary, said yesterday.

In an address to the Brookings Institution in Washington, Mr Browne said policymakers must drop any illusions of "imposing a Jeffersonian democracy" and press forward with "Afghanisation" of the justice and police systems. This would mean, where necessary, supporting laws and structures that "may not sit easily with our culture and norms but do so with theirs", he said.