Currently, Britain has 7,800 military personnel in Afghanistan. This will bring the total number of British troops in the country to over 8,000 by the spring 2009.

"The Taliban are losing the fight in southern Afghanistan," Browne told MPs in a Commons statement.

Earlier on Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "The reason

Ads

is that we want to help the Afghans train up their own army and their own police forces and the reason is we want to have better equipment in Afghanistan in the future."

The premier added that the British troops are undergoing a "reconfiguration," with more specialist personnel being deployed in the country, "there will be some coming out and some more going in and overall increasing the numbers so that we have the highest level of troops in Afghanistan."

The majority of British military personnel in the war-torn country are based in the southern Helmand province. Last week five members of the parachute regiment were killed in Afghanistan bringing the total dead to 102 since the start of the U.S.-led military operation that toppled the radical Islamic Taliban movement in October 2001.

Many of the troops have been killed since 2006, when Taliban forces began stepping up attacks.

President Bush, who is on a farewell tour of Europe before leaving office in January 2009, praised Brown for the "steadfastness and resolution that he has shown in rooting out terrorism in all parts of the world".

LONDON, June 16 (RIA Novosti)