Britain has not ruled out joining US air strikes against Islamic State militants in Syria, Downing Street says, contradicting a comment from Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
No 10 was forced to step in to clarify the government's position Hammond appeared to say that the UK would not mount attacks on Syrian territory.
"Britain will not be taking part in any air strikes in Syria," he told reporters on Thursday following talks in Berlin with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
However Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman insisted that Hammond's remarks referred to the decision last year not to bomb president Bashar Assad's force after the government was defeated in a Commons vote.
"The point he was making was that last year parliament expressed its view with regard to taking action with air strikes against the Assad regime," the spokesman.
"In terms of air power and the like, the prime minister has not ruled anything out. That is the position. No decisions have been taken in that regard."
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