British cabinet ministers who are visiting Kabul have played down differences that had appeared to be growing between the Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Defense Secretary Liam Fox over the future British's role in Afghanistan. From Kabul, here is Mark Dummett.

Following a day of meetings in Kabul, the ministers were keen to stress that they would be working closely together to tackle what William Hague has described as Britain's most urgent foreign policy priority. The International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said it wasn’t possible to put a cigarette paper between his views, for example, and those of the Defense Secretary Liam Fox who had argued in a newspaper interview that Britain should move away from nation building and focus more narrowly on Britain security interests. Here in Kabul, Dr Fox was keen to play down those comments. In his newspaper interview, Liam Fox also said he wants to see if there was any chance of bringing the troops back home any faster than planned. But William Hague said it wouldn't be possible to set any kind of date.