The 4,600 additional troops includes 3,300 for a special force tasked with reconstruction and fighting the drug trade in the dangerous southern Helmand province, where members of the ousted Taliban regime lurk.

The airborne assault and infantry troops will be backed by eight new US-made Apache and four Lynx attack helicopters as well as six Chinook transport helicopters, Defense Secretary John Reid told the House of Commons.

Following the brief peak in July, Reid explained numbers were then expected to stablize at about 4,700 after the withdrawal of engineers who build camps as well as some other forces.

Some 1,100 British troops are already in Afghanistan.

The new contingent will form part of a three-year expansion of the NATO force to some 18,500 troops, including 9,000 in the south, with commitments from the United States, Canada, Romania and Estonia, his ministry told AFP.

It is the third phase of the expansion of NATO, which has already deployed in Kabul and northwest Afghanistan in a bid to stabilize the nation, rebuild it and help impose the authority of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government.

Separately, some 18,000 US troops are deployed in Afghanistan, including in southern and eastern Afghanistan to hunt for remnants of the Islamic militant Taliban regime and their Al-Qaeda Arab allies.

US officers have not said how many of their forces will withdraw following the new deployment.

Reid said more than 1,000 troops will also be sent to the Kabul headquarters of the British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARCC).

The ARCC assumes command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NAT0) International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan from May 2006 until February 2007.

The US-led force and ISAF -- which currently has 11,000 soldiers from 37 countries, including non-NAT0 members -- have had separate roles in Afghanistan in the years since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001.

Reid acknowledged the forces faced risks in a part of Afghanistan where the Taliban, which ruled the country until US-led forces overthrew it in 2001, remained active and the influence of drug traffickers was strong.

But he added: "Those risks are as nothing compared to the dangers to our country and our people of allowing Afghanistan to fall back into the clutches of the Taliban and the terrorists."

The troops deployed to Afghanistan will be well armed with armored vehicles, a battery of 105mm light guns, a battery of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

The deployment, which will cost one billion pounds (1.45 billion euros or 1.78 billion dollars), will not trigger a reduction of Britain's military presence in southern Iraq, Reid added.

The United States and Canada already have troops in the south and Reid expressed hope that more countries, including the Netherlands where a vote is expected on possible deployment of its troops, would join.

Meanwhile London will play host next week to an international conference on Afghanistan which will focus on a five-year plan to speed up Afghanistan's reconstruction and tackle an upsurge in violence. Donor funding is sought.

Humanitarian groups gave a cautious welcome to the new deployments.

Christian Aid said it supported international peace-keeping operations in Afghanistan but complained of past NATO-backed civilian aid and reconstruction projects in the north and west.

"These have been shoddy pieces of work, expensive and have actually added to the insecurity of aid workers."

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