国际英语新闻：Britain's defense secretary to hold talks over defense cuts

A decision needs to be made over replacements for the fleet of four in the 2020s, and the 20 billion pound (about 29 billion U.S. dollars) cost would normally have been borne by the Treasury. But Chancellor George Osborne has said publicly he wants the MOD to carry the cost. It's on issues like this where Cameron may have to intervene.

Fox has the support of armed services leaders in his fight against cuts. He said, in a TV interview: "I think we've got far more coherence between myself and the service chiefs than we have seen for a long time."

The army, navy and air force have all fought their own battles to protect their own force and future projects. Threats hang over all services, with the army's tanks and the air forces jet fleet looking likely targets for cuts.

For the navy, the threat is that one or both of the large aircraft carriers under construction, at 65,000 tonnes each they will be the largest Royal Navy vessels yet, could be cancelled. But influential voices have put a lot of political pressure on the government.

The former prime minister Gordon Brown said the carrier- building program, on which 1.2 billion pounds (1.7 billion U.S. dollars) has already been spent and which will see the first carrier launched in 2016, should go ahead to protect jobs in vital industrial sectors and areas of the country where skilled jobs are scarce.

He was joining a vocal campaign by the devolved Scottish government, which fears an end to the program could seriously damage Scottish industry. The Scottish government also fears that wider cuts in military spending could result in military bases in Scotland being closed, which be a blow to both jobs and the economy.

Unions are also opposed. Unite, one of the largest unions, warned of the dangers the SDSR posed to the manufacturing sector.

Bernie Hamilton, Unite's national officer for defense, said: " The coalition believes wrecking the UK's sovereignty to manufacture defense equipment is a price worth paying."

He added: "Tens of thousands of job cuts in some of Britain's most deprived regions will have tragic consequences. These skilled manufacturing jobs won't get replaced."

The SDSR is being carried out at the same time as the government prepares for the largest spending review since the Second World War on October 20.

Cuts of 111 billion pounds (about 160 billion U.S. dollars) over the next four years will be outlined, in a bid to tackle a record public spending deficit which this year stands at 153 billion pounds (about 224 billion U.S. dollars). Some departments could face cuts in budgets of up to 40 percent.