A leaked report which claimed that the Navy's fleet of ships are facing a crisis has been refuted by the Ministry of Defence.

Claims that Treasury cuts left the force with a significant number of vessels unfit for service were made by the Daily Telegraph on Monday with the publication of a leaked document detailing a list of concerns.

The Telegraph has published what it claims is a copy of the Fleet Risk Register, written by a senior Navy officer, which claims it cannot fulfil its role in Nato's rapid reaction force "because ships are not always fully fit for task".

The paper also claims that ships had been sent to sea with "significant armoury shortfalls" and would not have had enough ammunition to defend themselves in battle.

Other concerns were raised over a lack of pilots to fly the Navy's helicopters which has hit the operational capability of the Royal Marines.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon dismissed the report as "inaccurate" and old news. "This document seems to me to be an out-of-date assessment of those risks. Many of those problems either have been or are currently being addressed,'' he said. "Inevitably these kind of risk assessments have a very limited shelf life.''

The next round of defence spending is soon set to go underway and the leaking of the report could be a tactical move by service chiefs to win a larger slice of the defence budget.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the aim of the report was to identify "a range of possible risks" and was "actively and effectively managing all of them".

It was a report on "routine management business and does not indicate a particular crisis in the Royal Navy" he aid.

He added: "As announced last July, the defence budget will rise from £23 billion in the last Financial Year (2000/01) to almost £25 billion by 2003-04."