Three of the four rockets discovered in the Afghan capital were described as "armed and ready to launch". Local police found them hours after two missiles were fired at international peacekeepers Sunday, the first such attack since security forces began patrolling Kabul last year.Peacekeepers said the attacks would not be allowed to destabilize the interim administration led by Hamid Karzai."We are absolutely determined to carry on," said Flight Lt. Tony Marshall, another spokesman for the British­led International Security Assistance Force.Marshall had said earlier that a 107 mm Chinese­made rocket exploded just metres from a camp housing German and Danish troops. But an initial investigation revealed the warhead on that missile did not explode, the spokesmen said.The landing site of a second missile fired in the peacekeepers' direction Sunday, also believed not to have detonated, has not yet been found, they said.. Gordon Pell used to be intent on becoming chief executive of a FTSE 100 company, but now he is not so sure. As the head of retail banking at the mighty Royal Bank of Scotland, with direct responsibility for the prestigious Coutts private banking brand, Mr Pell sees his responsibilities and status as comparable to those of a typical FTSE chief of only a few years ago. When Coutts' chief executive, Andrew Fisher, quit in December for a job in venture capital, Mr Pell installed himself as the replacement, making him bank manager to the Royal family, Premier League football players and a host of pop stars.

Being "in the top three at Europe's second largest bank", as Mr Pell puts it, has its compensations."Coutts was already part of my business at RBS," he says. "The problem was that if I brought in someone else, that person was going to come with their own views and their own strategy and quite frankly we can do without that."Mr Pell is taking the reins at Coutts as the 320-year-old bank stands at a crossroads. Coutts was struggling when Mr Fisher came in as a consultant in 1997, but was soon experiencing a renaissance. Mission accomplished, Mr Fisher's role risked becoming, in Mr Pell's view, a "status quo" job that lacked adrenalin."Andrew, when all was said and done, was the chief executive of a small division. As well as being the director of a small division I'm also a director of the bank. They've now got a very big gun 'on site' as one might say," he says.So what does Mr Pell see himself doing for Coutts? He cannot afford to focus exclusively on strategy. In its history, the bank has served William Pitt, the Duke of Wellington and King George III.

The high net worth clients of today – Coutts has 70,000 – expect to know the top man personally, and it is not unusual for Mr Pell's Monday morning to be spent in the country shooting with some of them. (Coutts managers who deal with landowners have just been on a farming course, so they can have "sensible discussions" with their clients).But there are grand plans all the same. Mr Pell aims to jazz up Coutts and make it more pro-active in recruiting customers. "The danger is that Coutts is seen as traditional money, which it's not," he muses "We've now got to take the message and put it on the street.

Only our street is not the high street, it's Sloane Square."This evangelism will mean modernising what is arguably one of the most powerful brands in European banking. The dining rooms at Coutts' headquarters in the Strand have been refurbished to provide a "crisp, modern feel", using the "best of modern British cutlery". It is about making Coutts more "Gordon Ramsay than Simpson's-in-the-Strand", Mr Pell suggests, contrasting one of the current hottest chefs to one of the most traditional old chop houses.And 2002 could hardly be a better time to make the push. Sure, RBS and Coutts already have one-third of the market for customers with £100,000 to spare, and indirect relationships with another third.