No quick victory in Afghanistan: British official

KABUL, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- British Defense Secretary Bob Ainsworth said here Thursday that the international community cannot achieve goals in a short term in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"I don't think that we can give people in fight expectation that we can win in a short term," he told a joint press conference after having met with Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak at the Afghan defense ministry.

"We got to recognize the fact that the insurgency is strong, it's still strong," said the British official.

The British government has said it was sending 500 additional soldiers to Afghanistan to join the present 9,000-strong forces on the ground.

"I want to see certain progress," Ainsworth said, "the British people need to see some progress but they understand it's not to be easy so that we have to count more life sacrifices in future as we have had in the past."

The British defense chief said, "It's a difficult operation. What the British people do need to see is the growing Afghanistan capability."

Afghan Defense Minister Wardak said, "I think with the additional Afghan and international troops, we will be able to conduct operation which was lacking in the past."

Wardak added," we will make sure that once we clear the area we will hold it and make the conditions sustainable for governance and economic development."

The British death toll in Afghanistan has reached 100 so far this year with the death of a British soldier announced last Monday in Taliban's stronghold Helmand province where most of British soldiers are stationed.