His comments in an interview with broadcaster ITV News follow those of NATO's military commander, who called for allied nations to provide more troops to combat a surprisingly strong insurgency in the south of Afghanistan.

"The fighting is extraordinarily intense. The intensity and ferocity of the fighting is far greater than in Iraq on a daily basis," Brigadier Ed Butler told ITV News.

"It will continue to be tough and we will continue to take more casualties, but morale is extraordinarily high," he added.

"Some reinforcements requested are already being used in battles but we could always do with more forces to generate a higher tempo operation and we could get things done quicker."

Butler added that British troops in Afghanistan were involved in "fighting that is up close and personal", including at times hand-to-hand combat.

General Jones earlier said he would urge members of the transatlantic military alliance to provide more soldiers at a meeting of NATO chiefs of defence staff in Warsaw on Friday and Saturday.

"We are talking about modest reinforcements," US General James Jones told reporters at NATO's military headquarters in Mons, southern Belgium.

"There is increased violence in the south," he said.

While the intensity of some fighting "is predictable, we should recognise that we are a little bit surprised at the level of intensity, and that the opposition in some areas are not relying on traditional hit-and-run tactics."

Three British soldiers died on Wednesday in Afghanistan, bringing to 40 the number of British troops dead there since 2001. Fourteen British armed service personnel were killed when their Nimrod reconnaissance plane crashed on Saturday.

Britain has the bulk of its deployment of around 4,500 troops to Afghanistan in Helmand.

The NATO-led force took over military command of southern Afghanistan on July 31 from the US-led coalition that toppled the fundamentalist Taliban government in late 2001.

The force -- which has around 10,000 mainly British, Canadian and Dutch troops in the south -- has come under regular attack, particularly in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.

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