John Reid, British defence secretary, said on Wednesday he was “not satisfied” with the configuration of allied troops set to be deployed with a UK contingent of forces to southern Afghanistan this year, putting new pressure on the Netherlands, which is due to vote on whether to join the mission next week.

Britain, Canada and the Netherlands have long been expected to be the core of a 6,000-troop Nato deployment to southern Afghanistan, but Dutch nervousness about increasing violence in the region has called into question whether its parliament will approve its deployment in a February 2 vote.