02/03/2013 BBC Weekend News

Good afternoon. The Defence Secretary, Phillip

Hammond, has warned that further significant cuts to the armed

forces would "very seriously" undermine military capability. He

suggested that savings, due to be announced in the Chancellor's

forthcoming spending review, should instead come from the welfare

budget. Spw Our Defence Correspondent Jonathan Beale

reports. Philip Hammond says he is not willing to take on more cuts.

We cannot make significant cuts without eroding military capability.

We are very taught. We have challenging targets ahead of us to

deliver the outcome of the last Spending Review. I am clear we will

be unable to deliver further $:/STARTFEED. Philip Hammond

resided over the biggest defence cuts since the end of the Cold War.

A process that has left thousands of soldiers, Saylors and airmen

redundant, but he believes that axing more military troops and

hardware is a mistake for the country. The negotiations within

the Cabinet about the next round of cuts have begun.

Philip Hammond believes that they should look at saving ins in the

welfare budget. That's put him at loggerheads with

those who believe that cuts in welfare have gone far enough. It

makes life difficult for the Chancellor.

More of this now with our Political Correspondent Louise Stuart.

How has this gone down? Well, the gloves came off in the run-up to

the Eastleigh by-election, if anyone thought that they could put

that behind them, they is not going to help. Philip Hammond said that

things were taught. That is at the Ministry of Defence.

He says he cannot make further cuts unless it is to reduce the UK's

military capability. So he has gone further, saying perhaps we should

look to other budgets and singled out the welfare budget for cuts

instead. That has not gob down well with the Liberal Democrats it is a

warning shot from Philip Hammond, saying he will fight to protect his

budget. I have spoken to some who say that theres have been enough

cuts, and the Liberal Democrats saying that they will not tolerate

anymore. President Obama has signed an order

which will trigger $85 billion of cuts in US government spending. It

came after talks between the White House and Republicans to agree less

severe reductions in spending ended without a deal. The White House

warned that the cuts would have a "deeply destructive" impact. Paul

Adams reports. Congress and the White House have had a year-and-a-

half to reach a bargain on the deficit reduction, but with the

President calling for a mixture of cuts and closing tax luep holes for

the rich, the Omans were not good for a set of last-minute talks in

the White House. At a time when the businesses have

fuenally begun to get traction, hiring new workers, bringing jobs

back to America, we should not be making a series of dumb arbitrary

cuts to what businesses depend on and workers, like education,

research and infrastructure. The White House says that the

consequences of the arbitrary cuts will be severe. The Republicans

accuse him of scare tactics. The markets do not, for the time being,

seem unduly concerned, but at the Pentagon, the new Defence Secretary,

Chuck Hagel, on his third day in the job, warned that the impact on

his department would be swift and severe.

There could be cutbacks and this will have a major impact on

training and readiness. The army will curtail training for all units,

other than those deploying to Afghanistan.

If there is no solution found, the government employees, including

around 700,000 civilians who work for the Department of Defence will

soon find themselves forced to take unpaid leave. No-one thoses what

this could mean in practise but as there is a demonstration in

Washington, it is fairly unambiguous. A number of British

tourists have been injured in a coach crash in Kenya. Witnesses

said the coach rolled down an embankment after skidding on a dual

carriageway approaching Mombasa Airport this morning. The foreign

office has said consulate staff are assisting Britons involved. Their

injuries are not thought to be life-threatening. The Queen has

been forced to cancel a planned visit to Wales today because of

illness. Buckingham Palace says she's been suffering from symptoms

of gastroenteritis and will instead spend the weekend at Windsor Castle.

Let's join Richard Lister. Any more word about her? Well,

Buckingham Palace have been saying nothing more beyond the statement

that they put out yesterday. The fact she is here, rather than in

hospital, suggests she is not seriously ill, and the expectation

is she will be restored to good health in the next day or so, but

for somebody PROBLEM WITH SOUND, She has

cancelled two visits in five months. So she is in robust health but the

Buckingham Palace will have to make an assessment whether or not she is

well enough on Wednesday to go out for a two-day visit. So we need