UK Occupation of Afghanistan For "Decades"

Last Updated: Wednesday, 20 June 2007,
13:09 GMT 14:09 UK
BBC

The UK presence in Afghanistan will need to remain for decades to help rebuild the country, British ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has said.

"The task of standing up a government of Afghanistan that is sustainable is going to take a very long time," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

...The BBC learned in January that the government planned to send as many as 35 extra diplomatic staff to Afghanistan.

The priorities would be to combat corruption, help build government institutions in the south and to tackle the production of opium, the Foreign Office said.

The number of UK troops in Afghanistan is also being boosted to about 7,700 this year. They will be mainly based in the volatile Helmand province, where they have been fighting the Taleban.

BBC world affairs editor John Simpson said the British embassy in Kabul was likely to become the UK's biggest anywhere.

Sir Sherard said: "We are going to win this, but it's going to take time. It's a marathon rather than a sprint - we should be thinking in terms of decades."