LONDON. The Falklands will be lost forever if Argentina invades again, one of Britain's senior military figures has warned. The former head of the army, General Sir Michael Jackson, told The Sunday Telegraph that defence cuts had made it ''impossible'' to win the islands back, in the way the British task force did in 1982.

''What if an Argentinian force was able to secure the Mount Pleasant airfield? Then our ability to recover the islands now would be just about impossible,'' said General Jackson.

''We are not in a position to take air power by sea since the demise of the Harrier force.''

Britain no longer has an aircraft carrier and the Harrier fleet has been sold to the US Marine Corps.