UK to build Afghan memorial

The Prime Minister has tweeted a photo of himself meeting troops in Afghanistan.

David Cameron said: "It's been a privilege talking to the men and women serving Britain in Helmand on Armed Forces Day."

The Prime Minister David Cameron has called on the Pakistani Government to work with the UK to build a better Afghanistan.

Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, ahead of his visit to Pakistan, Mr Cameron said: "We have a very clear view which is that it's in Pakistan's short, medium and long-term interest to have a secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan with which they have a good and strong relationship."

The Prime Minister has been speaking about Afghanistan's future during a trip to Camp Bastion.

He said: "To secure it for the future we need the most capable Afghan government, we need the most capable Afghan security forces but we also need the political process.

"Those people who are prepared to give up the bomb and the bullet can be part of that political process as part of that future for Afghanistan that will be in all our interests".

A Bastion Memorial Wall will be built at the National Arboretum in Staffordshire over the next 18 months and will receive £300,000 in funding from Libor bankers' fines

The existing memorial in Camp Bastion will be dismantled as troops leave next year and much of it as possible will be used in the arboretum to provide a focal point for remembrance for families, friends and comrades.

Announcing the plan in Camp Baston, David Cameron said it would allow future generations to remember "those that fell and died here in Afghanistan".

David Cameron took the controls of a bomb disposal robot as he visited troops on the front line in Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister steered a Wheelbarrow robot using a remote control during a tour of the Lashkar Gah Durai forward operating base.

Mr Cameron also mimicked the action of launching a Desert Hawk 3 drone as he held the unmanned aerial vehicle.

Prime Minister David Cameron met with British soldiers at Camp Bastion during an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to coincide with Armed Forces Day.

A senior No 10 source said it will be for the National Security Council to decide what the UK's role would be after 2014 but "we have done our fair share".

The source said:

During a trip to Afghanistan on Armed Forces Day, David Cameron said it was an opportunity to say "how proud we are of our armed forces and everything they do for us".

He also said funding from Libor rate-rigging fines would be put into military charities and a permanent memorial would be built at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

In terms of the political aims of the country, he said: "We want a political solution as well as making sure we have a security solution.

Mr Cameron added that it was important that the politics "enable everyone in Afghanistan to play a role in the future of their country".

Funding from bankers' Libor fines would be used to create a permanent memorial to the 444 British personnel killed in Afghanistan, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced.

"I can announce today that we will be taking more money off the Libor fines and putting it in to military charities including building a permanent memorial at the Staffordshire Arboretum so that we can always remember and future generations can remember those that fell and died here in Afghanistan."