Politician sceptical on Afghan reinforcements

By Adrian Croft and Paul Taylor

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is unlikely to be able to send major reinforcements to Afghanistan because its armed forces are already overstretched, a leading opposition politician said Thursday.

William Hague, the Conservative Party's foreign affairs spokesman, said "we'd take a lot of persuading" if Britain was pressed to reinforce its 8,100-strong force battling Taliban guerrillas.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to send more troops to Afghanistan, where the United States already has more than 30,000 soldiers, and he is expected to pressure European members of NATO to provide more troops and cash.

"Given the overstretch of our armed forces, it is unlikely to be possible to have a major increase in the number of our troops in Afghanistan," Hague told Reuters in an interview.

"We've done more than our proportionate share in Afghanistan and we continue to do so and should continue to do so, but it is time for the rest of NATO to step up to the plate in Afghanistan," said Hague, who visited Afghanistan in September with conservative leader David Cameron where they talked to British soldiers.

Asked about Hague's comments, an MoD spokesman said the armed forces were stretched but that the situation was manageable.

"We remain confident that they are capable of meeting current levels of commitment, although we recognise that these levels cannot be sustained indefinitely," he said.

The government has also called for a fairer sharing of the burden in Afghanistan although Prime Minister Gordon Brown said this week he was ready to "consider what's necessary" if Britain did receive a request for more troops.