NORTH Wiltshire Conservative MP James Gray has said that it is right and proper to identify failures that meant some troops serving in Iraq were not issued with essential kit.

He said that while, by and large, troops had got to the right place with the right equipment, it was irresponsible for defence secretary Geoff Hoon to try to ignore problems that had occurred simply because it had not prevented the overall military operation being a success.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday he said that on a visit to the Middle East as part of a MPs' delegation in June he spoke to troops who were only issued with two bullets among them were tanker drivers serving the front line who had to carry out whip rounds to collect a magazine full of ammunition.

He also said that water coolant was vitally needed for any future desert campaign in addition to air conditioning the lack of which had put many of the forces' computers out of action.

In March last year the Advertiser revealed that Sarah Jane Masters, a soldier serving with the Swindon-based A Squadron of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry, had to buy a new pair of desert boots, a camp bed, water bottles, a rucksack, sunglasses and toiletries because she thought standard, Army- issue equipment was not up to the job.

Ms Masters, 27, who served with 115 other nuclear, biological and chemical decontamination specialists in Iraq, also took a respirator with her to the Middle East because she said the one given to her did not fit properly.