Soldier's troops plea to minister

A front-line UK soldier in Afghanistan has told the defense secretary "more troops on the ground" are needed.

Bob Ainsworth had asked Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes, a bomb disposal specialist, what was his "top desire from right here at the chalkface".

Mr Ainsworth, accompanied by Home Secretary Alan Johnson, told him troop reinforcements will be slow and cannot be delivered by the UK alone.

"We have got to try to get others to do their share," he said.

"You can throw money at this and it still takes time," he added.

His comments come after US General Stanley McChrystal called for more troops and the head of the British army told a Sunday newspaper he supported calls for reinforcements.

"If you put in more troops we can achieve the objectives laid upon us more quickly and with less casualties," General Sir David Richards told the Sunday Telegraph.

"We can start winning the psychological battle."

Mr Ainsworth and Mr Johnson toured mentoring schemes set up by British and US officers to support local forces.

After meeting the defence secretary, Staff Sgt Hughes, 30 - who is just days from returning home to his family in Shropshire after a six-month tour - said it had been a "ridiculously busy, ridiculously hard tour".

"We have lost two guys. Clearly more troops are needed on the ground - but then the same could be said for equipment," he added.

His commanding officer, Maj Eldon Millar, said: "Inevitably you feel you could do with a little more help.

"We are so stretched across Helmand because it is such a large area."

On Thursday, the number of British service personnel killed in Afghanistan since 2001 rose to 219 following the death of 24-year-old RAF serviceman Marcin Wojtak in Helmand province in the south of the country.