Prime minister opens international conference on Afghanistan with speech announcing creation of international fund to finance a national reconciliation programme

Gordon Brown today claimed that coalition forces were "turning the tide" against the Taliban as he opened an international conference in London on the future of Afghanistan.

The prime minister also announced the creation of an international fund to finance a national reconciliation programme unveiled by the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

Brown said that the international community would back plans for insurgents to be offered "a way back into mainstream life", provided they renounced violence and cut their links with al-Qaida.

But he delivered this message to al-Qaida: "We will defeat you. Not just on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan – and in any and every country where you seek refuge."

Brown said that more than 8,000 extra Nato troops had been committed to Afghanistan since the US president, Barack Obama, announced a surge in US forces in the country last year.

"A military surge is turning the tide against the Taliban-led insurgency, and at the same time building the capacity of the Afghan forces who are fighting alongside us," he said.

In a BBC interview broadcast before the conference started, Karzai suggested that British troops could remain in Afghanistan for another 15 years.

"With regard to training and equipping the Afghan security forces, five to 10 years would be sufficient. With regard to sustaining them … the time period extends to 10 to 15 years," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

But in his speech Brown stressed that the process of handing over control over security in Afghan provinces to the Afghans would begin this year.

He said that the Afghan army would number 134,000 by October this year and 171,600 by October next year and that Afghan police numbers would reach 109,000 by this October and 134,000 by next October.

"This will bring Afghan national security forces to 300,000 in total – a presence that is far bigger than our coalition forces," he said.

In his speech Karzai said a national council for peace, reconciliation and re-integration would be established in Afghanistan.

It will be followed by a "peace jirga", with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia playing a "prominent role" to "guide and assist" the peace process.

"We must reach out to all of our countrymen, especially our disenchanted brothers who are not part of al-Qaida or other terrorist networks, who accept the Afghan constitution," he said.

The international fund to support the reintegration programme will be worth several hundred million dollars. Britain's contribution will be worth less than $10m (£6.2m)

Karzai also said that the fight against corruption would be "a key focus of my second term in office". The work of Afghan anti-corruption bodies will be overseen by a new independent group of international experts, in what is seen by Downing Street as a significant step towards making the Karzai regime more accountable.

Today the Foreign Office issued a statement criticising Iran for not attending the conference, which is also being attended by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as well as representatives from Nato, the United Nations, the European Union and other international organisations such as the World Bank.

The Foreign Office said: "The UK made every effort to involve Iran in the conference, not least by inviting them to join the core group drafting the communique.

"Senior representatives from all of Afghanistan's neighbours and the wider international community are attending, but despite their professed interest in contributing to regional solutions to Afghanistan's challenges Iran has chosen to isolate itself from this event.

"Iran's decision will disappoint the more than 70 countries and international organisations that are attending. It's a missed opportunity for them."

Though the snow bonus will cost Robert Wiseman £400,000, the company gained record sales in the wintry week of 9 January

Dairies firm Robert Wiseman said today it was paying £100 bonuses to its 3,500 staff for battling through the snow to keep the nation's milk flowing.

The bonus, which is costing Wiseman £400,000, comes after record sales in the week to 9 January when the weather disruption was at its height.

Wiseman said sales were more than 10% above a normal week as shoppers bought in supplies. It received "exceptional feedback" from its supermarket customers.

The staff bonus was "in recognition of the efforts made by our employees in getting milk collected, processed and delivered at this difficult time," the firm said.

Government to announce plans offering families 'radically more choice' in how they balance work and childcare

Dads will be able to take up to six months' paternity leave while their child's mother returns to work, under government plans announced today.

Fathers will have a legal right to take the place of the mother at home for the last three months of her nine-month maternity leave.

During that time, they would be eligible for statutory government pay of £123 a week. They would then be allowed to take an additional unpaid three months off, which would effectively allow couples to have a total of 12 months' parental leave between them.

The measure would allow mothers who earn more than their partners to return to work earlier, and is a victory for Harriet Harman, the Women and Equalities minister, who has championed extra parental leave and flexible working rights for parents.

Ministers intend to push through the necessary legislation by this April - prior to the general election, which is expected to be held in May. The changes will affect parents of children due on or after 3 April 2011 in "order to give employers time to adjust".

Last year, the government postponed plans to extend paid maternity leave to 12 months and allow parents to split this allowance between them, citing the economic climate and the costs and bureaucracy it would cause employers.

Harman said: "This gives families radically more choice and flexibility in how they balance work and care of children, and enables fathers to play a bigger part in bringing up their children.

"We've doubled maternity leave; doubled maternity pay; introduced paternity leave; more than doubled good quality affordable childcare places; and introduced right to request flexible working."

Ministers estimate that between 4% and 8% of those eligible for the new leave will take it, with only 1% of small businesses expected to be affected.

The transferable leave announcement was welcomed by the trade union movement.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said the proposals would help millions balance their work and family life. "As both parents work in most modern families, it's right that mums and dads should decide who looks after their baby, rather than the state deciding for them by only paying the mother for parental leave," he said.

"Business lobby groups have opposed every new family-friendly right, from flexible working to extended maternity pay. But in reality these changes have hugely benefitted millions of families and have had no damaging effect on businesses."

The Tories speculated that the pledge would be "quietly dropped" by Labour after voters go to the polls.

Shadow Minister for Women and Equality, Theresa May said: "Labour's track record implies that this is a pre-election pledge that could be quietly dropped after voters go to the polls. Labour went into the last election promising to extend maternity leave to a year, but have broken that pledge, why should anyone trust them on paternity leave now?"

May said the proposals "trailed behind" the Conservatives' own plans, which would allow parents greater flexibility by being able to take their leave simultaneously by splitting a year's leave between them.

What do the American people make of the Obama presidency? Our constantly updated interactive graphic shows his approval ratings from inauguration onwards and the key events that have influenced them

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And Jessica Shepherd looks at a new study that shows teenagers from poorer families are more likely to go to university than they were 15 years ago.

US president uses his first state of the union speech to promise he will make the creation of a million jobs his priority this year
• Datablog: how did Obama's speech compare to past presidents? As wordles

Barack Obama bowed to the wave of US public anger over unemployment and other recession-related issues when he promised in his first state of the union speech last night to make the creation of a million jobs the overwhelming priority for the coming year.

Obama used his 71-minute speech to re-align himself more closely with the concerns raised by disenchanted voters in the stunning Massachusetts election loss last week.

Although he insisted he would fight on to salvage his troubled health reform bill – another issue cited by voters – he devoted only a small portion of his speech to it. Instead, the unrelenting message was jobs, jobs, jobs.

Obama, who was reported by a journalist who had lunch with him earlier in the day to be deflated by the turn of events that has seen his popularity drop, nevertheless appeared relaxed throughout the speech. It was delivered on prime-time television at a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

He largely avoided the soaring rhetoric for which he is famous and opted for a more workmanlike approach, setting out proposal after proposal aimed at helping the country out of recession. About two-thirds of the speech was devoted to the economy, a response to criticism that he spent too much of last year on health reform at the expense of the recession.

He ended on an upbeat note. "We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit.I don't quit."

He acknowledged he had been to blame for some of the setbacks, principally in failing to explain health reform, one of the main issues cited by those voting against the Democrats in Massachusetts last week.

He appealed for calm among Democrats panicked by the Massachusetts result.

"To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills," Obama said.

The health bill could still be passed, by Democrats alone, without Republican support. The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, reversed her position yesterday to suggest the House might after all vote on a revised Senate version of the bill, a move that would avoid any Republican filibustering.

The president vowed not to desert those who had no healthcare. "I will not walk away from these Americans. And neither should the people in this chamber."

He called for a more bipartisanship approach to politics in Washington, but there was little sign of such willingness on the part of the Republicans, who spent most of the speech in their seats. The president, in spite of his plea to them, was geared up for a fight, relishing their discomfort when the Republicans appeared unsure whether to stay in their seats or applaud when he spoke about recouping money from banks, a populist issue.

The House Republican leader, John Boehner, one of those who remained conspicuously in his seat for most of the speech, offered little hope of bipartisanship.

"Unfortunately, the president and the Democrats in charge of Congress still aren't listening to the American people. The American people were looking for President Obama to change course tonight, and they got more of the same job-killing policies instead," Boehner said.

Voters in Massachusetts and, according to polls, elsewhere across the country, are upset over a recession that has left 10% unemployed, over the bank bailouts and Wall Street bonuses and ambivalent, or even outright hostile, towards his health plan.

Recalibrating his administration's agenda to meet concerns about jobs, Obama said he had saved or created 2m jobs last year and would create 1.5m this year.

This would be done mainly through investment in infrastructure, such as bridges, railways and water projects, and giving help to those small businesses that take on more workers and pay better wages.

Many of the speech's proposals to help recession-hit families had been leaked in advance, such as increased tax credits for poorer families and aid for students. In an attempt to placate voters concerned about the billions of dollars in extra federal spending, Obama is planning a partial freeze on expenditure, a largely cosmetic exercise, given that the biggest areas of federal spending, such as social programmes, are excluded.

He held out the prospect of help for students, saying that when they graduate they would only be required to pay 10% of their income on student loans and that all their debt would be forgiven after 20 years, or 10 years if they chose a career in public service.

He devoted more of his speech to climate change than had been predicted, renewing his promise to create clean energy jobs, but held out little hope that Congress would pass a climate change bill this year.

Some environmental groups such as Greenpeace welcomed his commitment to create clean energy jobs as a priority for this year.

As a concession to liberals who might feel betrayed by what they see as a shift closer to the centre ground, Obama promised that he would ask Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", the compromise used by the military towards gay people, so they could serve openly. The gay community has expressed disappointment with Obama so far.

He repeated his promise to deal with the broken immigration system, but offered no timetable, though last year he hinted it would be this one.

Unusually for a state of the union speech, there was little on foreign policy, only nine minutes. He spoke about the fight against al-Qaida, tackling the nuclear programmes of North Korea and Iran. There was no mention of his failed attempt to restart Middle East peace negotiations.