Britain's International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, has sharply revived impressions of tensions between London and Washington over their approach to the unfolding situation in Afghanistan.
Just as Downing Street and the Foreign Office played down talk of a rift with the Bush administration over the deployment of ground troops, Ms Short refuelled the speculation by questioning America's commitment to the aid effort needed to rebuild Afghanistan, following the fall of the Taliban regime.
Meanwhile, as the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, placed Britain's European "destiny" at the heart of efforts to build a more stable world, his government was facing some of its fiercest criticism yet over the Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett's, legislative response to the war on terrorism.
In a departure from the domestic political consensus, the Conservative leader, Mr Iain Duncan Smith, and Mr David Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader and Northern Ireland's First Minister, will today condemn Mr Blunkett for failing to extend the full terms of his Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill to Northern Ireland, and for creating "a distinction" between domestic and international terrorism.
Downing Street signalled likely "clarification" of Ms Short's comments last night as Mr Blair returned from Germany where he told the SPD conference that Britain, under New Labour, wanted to be "a full partner with Germany and others in the development of the EU" and again signalled his enthusiasm for a referendum on British membership of the euro after completion of the assessment of the Treasury's famous "economic tests" within 18 months.
However, as talks continued between London and Washington on what role British troops might play as part of any multinational "stabilisation" force, Ms Short told the Commons International Development Select Committee it was essential that international peacekeeping forces were deployed to provide security for the aid agencies carrying out humanitarian relief work in a hostile environment.
She complained the civil-military liaison between aid agencies and US headquarters was "not working particularly well", thus causing problems for aid workers on the ground.
"The communications are there but they are not being taken seriously enough at a high level," said Ms Short. And she questioned America's overall commitment to the alleviation of poverty around the world, despite a growing international consensus after September 11th that poverty alleviation in countries like Afghanistan was needed to stop them becoming breeding grounds for future terrorism.
Ms Short told the committee: "The only great power in the world almost turns its back on the rest of the world. It is not that the US is ungenerous. It is just that it is not sharing the insight that other countries have got and it is very important that we try to get them there." However Ms Short acknowledged that Britain's ability to exert moral influence on the US was weakened by the fact that it did not yet meet the UN's target of 0.7 per cent of GDP for international aid.
Ms Short said the events of September 11th had created "a historic opportunity" to bring the international community together to tackle global poverty, but added: "Whether the US will do that . . . I don't think we can see it as guaranteed."