"We're entering a new state in the operation in which I would like to make the case that we took away the operational initiative from the insurgents," Major General Mart de Kruif, who oversees more than 30,000 international troops in the south, told reporters in a teleconference.

De Kruif said that the NATO-led force was "now entering a new stage, in which we will have the operational initiatives on our side and maintain it."

With the influx of US Marines and Army combat troops in the volatile south, he said "significant operations" would be launched "in a very short time" in Helmand province and the city of Kandahar against insurgents.

The Dutch general also expressed optimism the extra troops would ensure that security would be "increased" in time for presidential elections in August.

Most of the additional 21,000 US combat troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama are heading to the south, a stronghold for the Taliban and the opium trade that helps finance the insurgency.

US officers have described the conflict with the insurgents in the south as a "stalemate."

De Kruif said violence would likely continue to rise as additional troops move into new areas, where no NATO troops have been present before.

But he said the strategy of the larger NATO-led force in the south was not to seek out the insurgents but to secure towns and villages, he said.

"I wouldn't call it aggressive operations targeting the insurgents but operations aiming at securing the population and separating the population from the insurgents," he said.

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had already forced Taliban militants to focus their resources around the city of Kandahar, resulting in improved security elsewhere in the provinces of Uruzgan and Zabul, De Kruif said.

He added that the insurgency leadership in the region was under "constant pressure" from ISAF forces, which include British special forces.

He said the number of insurgent fighters was estimated at between 10,000 to 18,000 in the southern region, while the Afghan government's army was at about 13,000 troops.

The general said the insurgents could be divided roughly into three groups, religious ideologues linked to the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, those with ties to opium trafficking, and what he called the "10-dollar-a-day" fighters motivated by money.

Security has steadily deteriorated in the past two years in Afghanistan despite the presence of close to 90,000 foreign troops.

In recent weeks violence reached the worst levels since 2001 when a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.

By the end of the year, about 68,000 US troops will be on the ground in Afghanistan, according to the US Defense Department.

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