A committee of MPs has warned that the current deployment of the British army abroad is unsustainable.

The government has undervalued the continuing need to deploy significant military personnel, and cuts in manpower and equipment programmes will lead to capability gaps, the Commons defence committee said in its report published today.

"Many frontline units in the army have for some years been experiencing an operational and training cycle whose intensity is unsustainable over the longer term," the report says.

The committee also said the MoD has underestimated the role the armed forces may have to play in defending Britain against international terrorism.

The MoD's emphasis is on an "expeditionary strategy" under which the threat from international terrorism is "dealt with at source".