KABUL: Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Saturday paid a surprise visit to Afghanistan, where he spoke to troops battling the Taliban and held talks with President Hamid Karzai as a police officer and six Taliban have been killed in military operations in southern Afghanistan.
The visit came as government and military sources speaking on condition of anonymity said around 300 British soldiers had been deployed from Cyprus as part of an increase in troop levels ahead of next year's presidential election, AFP reported.
Brown condemned Friday's "terrible' killing of British soldiers in Afghanistan, and said that other nations must also send more troops in support of the plan.
He said the world could not rely only on the two biggest contributors, Britain and the United States, whose president-elect Barack Obama has said he will send more troops to Afghanistan.
"In future, there must be proper burden sharing and that's something which we will insist upon," he said at a Kabul press conference with Karzai.
"As we look forward with president Obama's plans now about to come forward, then burden sharing is very much a part of that."
Brown said he was in Afghanistan to "take stock' of the situation.
He also called on Pakistan and Afghanistan to work together to ensure cross-border stability in the mountainous area seen as a Taliban hideout between the two nations.
"Joint action between Pakistan and Afghanistan is essential if we're going to have peace and stability," he said.
Brown visited troops in Helmand province a day after four British soldiers were killed in the volatile region. One was killed by a roadside bomb, while three others were killed by a 13-year-old who had hidden explosives under a stack of newspapers in a wheelbarrow.
Child: "It is a terrible commentary on the Taliban that they should use a 13-year-old child as a suicide bomber to kill some of our British troops," an emotional Brown told scores of British soldiers gathered around him at their Camp Bastion base, Reuters reported.
"I think that there is disgust and horror at these tactics used by the Taliban," said Brown, who described Friday's bombing as "cowardly'.
Brown travelled to Helmand's Sangin Valley, about 25 miles from where the four troops were killed. British military officials said it was the closest the country's prime minister had been to the front lines in the Afghan war, AP reported.
Killings: Meanwhile, a police officer and six Taliban have been killed in military operations in southern Afghanistan, the US-led and Afghan forces said on Saturday.
The police officer died in a gun battle set off when the two forces raided a manufacturing and storage facility for explosives in the southern province of Helmand, the coalition said, AFP reported. agencies
Daily Times (Lahore)
