Britain has effectively ruled out the large-scale deployment of troops to Afghanistan, acknowledging that far less than the 6,000 military personnel on standby will be sent to the region.
Amid signs from the US that its primary concern is the capture of Osama bin Laden rather than the distribution of humanitarian aid and with the Northern Alliance unwilling to see the deployment of large numbers of British troops, the Ministry of Defence said it was "far from clear" if there was any role for additional forces.
It had been expected that the deployment of 100 Marine Commandos to secure Bagram airport a week ago was the advance contingent of up to 6,000 troops who would eventually be sent to Afghanistan as part of an international "stabilisation" force.
But a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "Almost certainly nothing like that number \6,000 troops would deploy, even if a political decision was made to deploy the desirability of additional forces is not yet at all certain."
With British diplomats and coalition allies working behind the scenes to help facilitate an end to the siege of Kunduz and avoid a "massacre", the Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, earlier appealed to Northern Alliance commanders to act with "magnanimity" and accept the surrender of Taliban forces inside the city.
After talks in Islamabad with President Pervez Musharraf and Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Mr Abdul Sattar, Mr Straw warned of the "potential humanitarian disaster" if the situation was not resolved.
If Taliban forces were ready to surrender and they had given up their arms, Mr Straw said then "that surrender should be accepted".
But he cautioned: "Making those arrangements, and in particular in the very difficult and confused circumstances, could prove extremely difficult."
Mr Straw also signalled that if any additional British troops were sent to Afghanistan they would have to wait until after next week's talks in Bonn between Afghan opposition forces.
"Such forces can only come in with the consent of a new civil administration, so decisions on such forces, unless there was a very urgent need meanwhile, would probably have to wait until there was some conclusion to the Bonn meeting," said Mr Straw.
As the Foreign Office Minister, Mr Peter Hain, warned that generations of conflict in Afghanistan meant the situation in Kunduz was not going to be resolved "like a Sunday School outing", the Ministry of Defence said the "fluidity" of the situation in Afghanistan was influencing decisions. As part of a "constant" review of military plans, the ministry said officials were looking to the Bonn talks "before we start sending in thousands of troops."
In the short term, the 6,000 troops will remain on 48-hour standby, but it was also clear yesterday that, despite the warning by the International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, of a humanitarian crisis if aid routes were not secured, British forces may not become involved in the relief effort.