Mr Justice Hedley - who ruled two months ago that one-year-old Charlotte Wyatt should be allowed to die - says the child's treatment can be varied.

Charlotte's parents, Darren and Debbie Wyatt, disagree with doctors who say the baby has "no feeling other than continuing pain".

If the dispute is not resolved, a new hearing will be held on 28 January.

Glimmer of hope

Mr Justice Hedley said: "My immediate task is to make some provision in the meantime, in particular over the holiday period, so that the welfare of Charlotte is not imperilled and the work of the treating clinicians is not seriously impaired."

He said the carers had a duty to act in the best interests of the child if there was an emergency and they could not secure an agreement with the parents or contact them.

The judge ordered that the hospital uses its "best endeavours" to obtain the consent of the parents before embarking on any treatment.

He said the clinicians would be entitled to vary the use of drugs and nursing care which had already been agreed for Charlotte.

Charlotte's parents have disagreed with doctors over the baby's care regime.

The judge ruled on 7 October that any further "aggressive" treatment, even if necessary to prolong Charlotte's life, was not "in her best interests".

But Charlotte's parents, of Buckland, Portsmouth, say she has since shown signs of improvement and they believe there is still a glimmer of hope.

Charlotte, who weighed just a pound and measured only five inches when she was born three months premature at St Mary's Hospital, Portsmouth, last October, has serious brain, lung and kidney damage.