Nato on Friday night cancelled a meeting of defence ministers scheduled to take place next week in Naples as Washington continued its military and diplomatic build-up ahead of a possible operation in Afghanistan.

The two-day informal meeting was supposed to discuss how Nato would respond to any US military air strikes in addition to the future of the alliance's forces in Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia.

But when Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, on Friday said he would not be attending, Nato officials said it forced the alliance to reconsider the meeting.

The real reason, said a Nato official, was that it would have been "very unwise" if 15 defence ministers were in Naples if the US started its military operations.

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