**Gordon Brown is to outline proposals to counter roadside bombs which have led to rising UK deaths in Afghanistan.**The prime minister, who visited troops in Helmand at the weekend, will promise money for new equipment and a greater detection role for local forces.
He will tell MPs an Afghan intelligence network to identify where the devices are made and deployed will be set up.
An extra £150m is due to be spent on the UK’s campaign by “reprioritising” existing military spending plans.
It will come as part of a substantial change in defence priorities with more money being diverted to pay for equipment to target improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and more helicopters, says the BBC’s deputy political editor James Landale.
The cash, to be spent over three years, will see a specialist training base set up in Britain.
The IEDs laid by the Taliban will be targeted with an additional £10m to be used to buy 400 hi-tech robot mine detectors.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is also expected to say a new centre will set up in the UK to analyse aerial surveillance photographs.
As part of the reallocation of funds, he is set to announce the closure of at least one RAF base and a scaling back of the UK sovereign base area in Cyprus, as well as cuts to the MoD Police and back office functions.
Basic quarters
During his visit to Afghanistan, the prime minister inspected new equipment and held talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar.
At the Shorabak Afghan army base in Helmand, he witnessed sort of training local forces are getting to deal with IEDs.
He is expected to tell the Commons that President Hamid Karzai has promised to step up the training programme so his forces can take over more of this role from allied troops.
Our correspondent said unusually Mr Brown spent the night in the country, rather than flying in and out in one day.
He slept in “basic quarters” at the Kandahar air base, the headquarters of Nato troops in the south of the country.