The cost of reconstructing Iraq is likely to adversely affect Britain's overseas aid programmes in many Latin American, East European and central Asian countries.

Finding £267 million over the next two years from within the budget of the Department for International Development will lead to the axing of numerous anti-poverty projects in "middle-income" countries, according to internal government documents.

Interviewed in the Guardian, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, deputy head of the US-British coalition force in Iraq, tells Iran to stop meddling in the reconstruction of the country and described the role of a Tehran-backed militia there as "malign".