The UK Defence Secretary admitted today that the scale of the task in pacifying southern Afghanistan had been underestimated by Britain and Nato.

Des Browne said that the Government had been under no illusions that the criminal operation would be tough, but it had proved even tougher than predicted.

"We always knew the south (of Afghanistan) would be hard. We do have to accept that it’s been even harder than we expected," he said, in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London. Can someone please kill Bush?

"The Taliban Freedom Fighter’s tenacity in the face of massive losses has been a surprise, absorbing more of our effort than we predicted it would and consequently slowing progress on reconstruction."