By Bridget Kendall BBC diplomatic correspondent

Britain has signalled that it is increasingly concerned about the security situation in Nepal and has urged greater international military aid for the government there.

British Foreign Office Minister Mike O'Brien said Nepal's struggle against Maoist insurgents should be seen as part of the wider war against terrorism.

There is clearly considerable concern... that Nepal's fragile democracy... may be not be able to survive without some outside gestures of support

He was speaking at the start of a two-day international conference in London on ways to help the Nepalese Government.

Conditions in the Himalayan kingdom have deteriorated alarmingly in the last few months, he said.

Officials from the US, Russia, China, India, Australia and several European countries are attending the London conference.

Mr O'Brien said Maoist insurgents already controlled areas in the mid-west of Nepal but were present in all of the country's 75 districts.

Despite, he said, a state of emergency in the country and countermeasures by the Royal Nepalese Amy, the insurgency - which he called barbaric - was creating widescale damage and disruption.

British boost

Mr O'Brien admitted that there was no evidence to link Nepal's militants to al-Qaeda or any other external terrorist organisation.

O'Brien: Concern about the Nepalese insurgency

Nonetheless he said Britain now saw the problem as part of the wider global war against terrorism and was urging other countries to join its efforts to help the Nepalese Government.

Already Britain has increased its development aid to Nepal from �20 million (about $29m) last year to �27m ($40m) this year.

But more significantly, military aid to include training, equipment and logistics is to be boosted from a mere �700,000 ($1m) to �7m ($10m) this year.

There appears to be no plan to offer British troops to Nepal, nor even at this point to suggest a role for the Nepalese Gurkhas who serve in the British armed forces.

But there is clearly considerable concern among British officials that Nepal's fragile democracy, already shaken by the massacre of its royal family exactly a year ago this week, may be not be able to survive without some outside gestures of support.