LONDON, Feb 13: The cost of Britain’s military operations in Afghanistan almost doubled from £1.5bn last year to nearly £2.6bn in the current financial year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Defence.

If what was spent on war efforts in Iraq in the same period is also taken in the amount almost doubled to £4.5bn — the total showing an increase of more than 50 per cent over last year.

Most of the money spent in Afghanistan was on providing tougher armoured vehicles for soldiers who are said to face a growing threat of roadside bombs.

The Guardian on Friday estimated that the total cost so far of Britain’s military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 — not including civil aid money, which also runs into billions of pounds — is now about £14bn.

The newspaper estimates that the cost of military operations in Afghanistan is likely to increase further as the government comes under pressure from the US to deploy more troops there. Some 8,000 British troops are now fighting the Taliban and other insurgent groups in Helmand province in Afghanistan.

British defence staff are drawing up contingency plans to send between 1,500 and 3,000 more troops to southern Afghanistan later this year. Some reinforcements may be deployed temporarily during the period leading to presidential elections in Afghanistan, due in August.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown believes that western forces were facing a “new type of threat” in Afghanistan.

According to him Taliban had changed tactics in recent months to fight a guerrilla war with suicide attacks and roadside bombs and that there was ‘a renewed focus on stemming the flow of fighters across the border from Pakistan.

The MoD has asked for more than £600m for “urgent operational requirements” for the next financial year, 2009-10. Any expenditure above that will initially come out of the Treasury reserve, but the MoD will have to repay it after two years.The arrangement reflects overall pressures on public finances. The defence budget is already under severe pressure as a result of belated investment in such basic needs as accommodation for troops and their families and the procurement of expensive new weapons systems including aircraft carriers, destroyers, submarines and fast jets.

The defence budget will be increased by more than £500m to reach a total of just over £38bn this year, the MoD said on Thursday.

Most of the £14bn spent on war since 2001 has come out of the Treasury’s contingency reserve and not the defence budget. “This is new money over and above the core defence budget ... to ensure our forces are properly trained, equipped and supported for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the MoD said.