The British prime minister Gordon Brown has promised a renewed effort to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan and said the next months would be critical to the success of the war.
He was speaking during a surprise visit to Afghanistan this morning.
Mr Brown held talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a military base in Kandahar, one of the deadliest battlefields for NATO and US troops since the 2001 US-led invasion.
"I think it's very important to say that the combined effort of allied forces with the Afghan government is the way we will defeat the insurgency, the way we will stop Al-Qaeda having any space to operate in Afghanistan," he told a news conference with Karzai.
"I think the next few months are obviously critical," Brown earlier told reporters travelling with him.