UK Afghan troop level satisfactory: navy chief

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has as many troops in Afghanistan as its defense chiefs want, the head of Britain's Royal Navy said on Friday, distancing himself from criticism of the government by the former head of the army.

Britain has said it will send an extra 500 troops to Afghanistan, taking the British force to 9,500. It has been trying to persuade other countries in the NATO-led coalition to send an extra 5,000 soldiers to help fight the Taliban and train Afghan forces.

"As far as our commanders asking for troop levels to do the business that we are involved in, then the numbers that are currently there or planned to be there are exactly what we, the chiefs, have asked the government to provide," Admiral Mark Stanhope told reporters on Friday.

"The government has allocated the number of troops that we have asked for," he said on the sidelines of an event at Chatham House, a think tank in London.

Britain has the second largest number of foreign troops in Afghanistan after the United States.

A total of 235 British soldiers have died in the Afghan campaign, making the British mission in the landlocked Asian country a sensitive issue for Prime Minister Gordon Brown ahead of an election next year.

Richard Dannatt, the former head of the army, said earlier this year that military chiefs had asked for an extra 2,000 troops since the start of the year but that Brown had refused to send them. Brown denies that he has rejected recommendations to send more troops.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who vowed on Tuesday to "finish the job" in Afghanistan, may announce next week that he will send an extra 30,000 troops, U.S. officials say.

There are already about 68,000 U.S. troops among the 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Despite a rise in the number of troops deployed there, the death toll this year is the largest

since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.

"Success in Afghanistan -- however that success comes to be defined as the campaign progresses -- is vital to our national credibility and hence, our national security," Stanhope said in a presentation at Chatham House on Friday.

Just over 200 Royal Navy personnel are now deployed in Afghanistan on various duties, down from some 3,000 earlier this year. The size of the naval contingent will increase during 2010, a Royal Navy spokesman said.

Naval staff in Afghanistan have included royal marines, naval air squadrons and helicopters and logistical, medical and engineering personnel.

Stanhope, Britain's First Sea Lord, said there was a need to "guard against Afghanistan becoming the template for future UK defense structures."

"The range of threats to UK interests is greater than that," he said.

(Editing by Tim Pearce)