Brown said the remarks to a newspaper by outgoing junior Foreign Office minister Lord Mark Malloch-Brown had been misrepresented and repeated his insistence that British troops had everything they need.

"I am satisfied that Operation Panther's Claw has the resources it needs to be successful," he said, referring to a major assault on Taliban insurgents in the southern Afghan province of Helmand which British troops began in June.

"I think the fact that it is making progress at the moment and yielding results already shows that that is the case.... For the operation we are doing at the moment we have the helicopters we need."

Brown has been forced to defend Britain's strategy in Afghanistan following a surge in troops deaths there, in a row that has piled the pressure on a government already struggling with the recession and an expenses scandal.

A soldier was killed Wednesday in an explosion whilst on patrol in Nad-e-Ali district of Helmand, the Ministry of Defence said, taking the toll since operations began in 2001 to 188, more than in Iraq.

Malloch-Brown's intervention is an embarrassing addition to calls from military figures including army chief General Richard Dannatt and the main opposition Conservatives -- who are leading Brown's Labour party in opinion polls -- for more troops and equipment.

"We definitely don't have enough helicopters. When you have these modern operations and insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility," Malloch-Brown told the Daily Telegraph.

The minister, whose Foreign Office brief includes responsibility for Afghanistan and who is due to step down this week for personal reasons, later issued a statement that he said clarified his remarks.

In what appeared to be a U-turn, he said he had meant that "while there are without doubt sufficient resources in place for current operations, we should always do what we can to make more available on the frontline."

In his monthly press conference shortly afterwards, Brown said the way the newspaper had interpreted Malloch-Brown's interview remarks was a "misrepresentation", which had been corrected.

Asked whether more helicopters would have saved troops' lives in Afghanistan, he said: "More helicopters in general, yes... But in the operations we are having at the moment it is completely wrong to say that the loss of lives has been caused by the absence of helicopters."

However a former commander of British troops in Helmand disputed Brown's comments, saying that while Operation Panther's Claw might be properly resourced, the country's general mission in Afghanistan was not.

"I think the wider campaign in Afghanistan, and this has been the case from the early days, has been insufficiently resourced to undertake a proper counter-insurgency," retired Brigadier Ed Butler told BBC radio.

Malloch-Brown told the Telegraph that the British public had not been properly warned about the Afghan offensive before the death toll began rising.

Britain suffered its blackest day in Afghanistan earlier this month, with eight troops dying within 24 hours.

A new poll in The Times newspaper suggests the government is losing the public debate about resources, with 67 of respondents saying they believe British soldiers have died or been hurt because of inadequate equipment.

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