Brown pledges hundreds more troops for Afghanistan after Bush summit

The reinforcements will include infantry, helicopter and strike jet crews, engineers and reconstruction specialists to bolster the fight against the Taliban and try to speed efforts to rebuild the war-shattered country.

Gordon Brown yesterday announced Britain's latest reinforcements in a joint press conference with President Bush at Downing Street, signalling his continuing staunch support for the U.S-led mission in Afghanistan.

Reinforcements: More troops are being sent to Afghanistan

The development coincided with an admission by a senior British general that coalition forces were 'not winning' the war in Afghanistan and needed 'boots on the ground' to make more progress.

General Sir David Richards, the new Commander-In-Chief of all UK Land Forces, told the Ministry of Defence's in-house journal: 'Though things have improved, don't think for one minute we can believe that we are winning.'

And in an alarming development, hundreds of Taliban fighters seized villages near the main UK Afghan airbase at Kandahar – threatening the sprawling Nato base which provides the main air link with Britain, and forcing coalition commanders to rush reinforcements to the area to protect the city. 

Some 400 Taliban prisoners broke out of Kandahar's main jail at the weekend during a carefully-planned attack using car bombs to blast a huge hole in the perimeter wall, and it is suspected that many were involved in the village raids.

Support: PM Gordon Brown outlined his plans in Afghanistan during a joint press conference with U.S. President George Bush

The British reinforcements will include a company of 150 infantry and another 150 headquarters staff, training specialists to mentor the Afghan National Army and police units, crews for new armoured vehicles to protect troops from mines and roadside bombs, and a range of intelligence, reconnaissance and logistics specialists.

RAF Tornado strike jets will replace the Harrier jets carrying out airstrikes to support British troops, and more helicopter crews will be sent to bolster the hard-pressed fleet ferrying troops and supplies around Helmand Province.

Some 630 posts are being added to the UK force with 400 being axed, giving a net increase of 230 personnel over the coming months.

Setting out the details to the Commons yesterday, Defence Secretary Des Browne played down the reinforcements, claiming it was not a 'significant increase'.

He told MPs: 'It does not mean our mission is expanding.'

Going home: The announcement came as the bodies of five paratroopers killed within the past week in Afghanistan were flown back to Britain

But the move has added to concerns that Britain – along with the U.S. and Canada – is shouldering an unfair share of the fighting in Afghanistan, while other Nato allies are failing to pull their weight by committing more forces. 

America has 23,000 troops in Afghanistan, followed by Britain with 7,700, Germany with 3,370 – although Germany's constitution bars its troops from actually fighting – and Canada with 2,500.

France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Norway and Sweden all have fewer than 2,000 troops in Afghanistan.

The rising UK death toll – which reached 102 last week – has prompted serious questions over the coalition's strategy five years after the Taliban was toppled from power, and concerns over the long-term prospects while Afghanistan's national government remains riven by corruption, weakness and links with the illegal opium trade.

First Ladies on parade: Sarah Brown took Laura Bush on a tour of the British Museum while their husbands talked politics

British forces originally moved into the former Taliban heartland of Helmand Province with a force of 3,600 troops two years ago, when then Defence Secretary John Reid presented the mission as a low-key security operation and suggested UK forces could leave within three years 'without firing a shot'.

Senior defence officials played down any major withdrawal of UK forces from Iraq this year, but said a 'significant' reduction in the 4,800-strong force in Basra might be possible by mid 2009.

• General Sir David Richards says the Army needs to recruit more Muslim soldiers.

      The UK's former senior commander in Afghanistan claimed the Muslim                           community was 'a huge asset that we need to tap into', and said he hoped to send       the Army's 300 existing Muslim soldiers to 'go back into their communities to act           as extra recruiters'.

     However, the Muslim Council of Britain said it was 'a reality' that the wars in Iraq and      Afghanistan were 'widely unpopular amongst Muslim communities' and had                 'undoubtedly impacted on the Army's ability to attract new recruits.'