The Army today blasted William Hague after the Tory leader called for the military to be put in charge of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Mr Hague said "decisive action" was needed because the epidemic had left the Ministry of Agriculture "hopelessly overstretched".

But his proposal was immediately rejected by Brigadier Alexander Birtwistle, the senior officer in charge of the mass slaughter operation in Cumbria.

He said: "This is a MAFF-led operation and necessarily so.

"To be frank, I don't want to lead this operation. It would be too much trouble, too difficult to do with the resources I've got."

The rebuff is embarrassing for Mr Hague as he tries to keep up the pressure on the Government over its handling of the foot-and-mouth crisis.

Mr Hague said: "When we called for the Army to be brought in, the slaughter backlog was just over 30,000 animals.

"It now stands at nearly 350,000 - over 10 times higher.

"At the current rate of slaughter, it would take 15 days to slaughter those animals that have already been authorised to be culled.

"This delay means that infected animals are breathing the disease into the air and contaminating more and more farms.

"It is increasingly clear that MAFF officials organising the Government's control and eradication programme have become hopelessly overstretched by the scale of the crisis."

The number of foot-and-mouth cases across the UK today rose to 960.

The Government has enlisted another 300 Army personnel - including 20 vets and 30 slaughtermen - in the fight against the epidemic.

In County Durham, the carcasses of nearly 900 cattle and sheep are to be exhumed because of fears they will contaminate local water supplies.

Agriculture officials have admitted the slaughtered animals were buried in the wrong place at a farm two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Michael Meacher caused confusion today by calling for a full public inquiry into the foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Mr Meacher said a "fundamental rethink" of the farming industry should form part of the inquiry.

But Downing Street said it had not been decided whether the inquiry would be held in public.

Read more about the crisis here.

Updated: 17.09 Tuesday, April 3