Rebels armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns ambushed a vehicle patrol of NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Helmand province, the force said in a statement.

One British vehicle was destroyed and another damaged. "Attack helicopters were deployed in close air support with the aircrew reporting at least one insurgent killed," ISAF said.

"Three ISAF soldiers were killed in this attack, and one was wounded. It is confirmed that the troops were British."

The injured soldier was evacuated by air to a military hospital at a British camp in the province. The ministry of defence in London said his wounds were serious.

Nine British soldiers have now been killed in combat this year in southern Afghanistan, where NATO is embarking on what it calls its most challenging mission yet to crack a growing Taliban insurgency.

The bulk of a British deployment of around 4,000 troops to Afghanistan is based in Helmand. Britain announced earlier this month that it would boost its initial deployment due to the unexpectedly fierce resistance.

The attack came a day after the US-led coalition that overthrew the Taliban in 2001 transferred command of foreign forces in southern Afghanistan to a NATO contingent.

ISAF's move into southern Afghanistan is NATO's most ambitious military undertaking yet and its first outside of the Europe-Atlantic area.

It is also risky, with insurgents more active in the lawless south than in the west and north of the country and Kabul, where ISAF has already been working to extend the government's authority.

Helmand is the main producer of Afghanistan's opium crop, which is the biggest in the world, and experts say the rebels and drugs-runners have joined forces against the new troops.

ISAF commander Lieutenant General David Richards said the attack would not deter the force.

"Whilst NATO-ISAF regrets the loss of life, our determination remains unaltered and the mission will continue unchanged. In fact, our resolve has been hardened," he said in the statement.

The NATO force knew it had the support of the majority of the people of Afghanistan "and this knowledge gives us the confidence that a small minority of insurgents will not prevent our ultimate success," Richards added.

The alliance's civilian spokesman in Kabul said such incidents were not unexpected in an area that had already seen several encounters between coalition troops and insurgents.

"It tells us what we already knew, which is the south is a difficult and challenging environment," Mark Laity told AFP.

"But it was challenging yesterday and it will be challenging tomorrow. The key thing is, this does not change our determination to continue the mission."

Laity said the incident also did not detract from NATO's ambition to put a greater emphasis on reconstruction than the US-led coalition, which was mandated primarily to hunt down insurgents.

"Development and security cannot be separate but we obviously know that the establishment of security is more challenging in some areas than others," Laity said.

A total of 63 foreign troops have died in action in Afghanistan in 2006, the bulk of them Americans.

The coalition remains in command of foreign forces in the east of the country, where resistance from Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies is also high.

The US-led force announced Tuesday that it had arrested four suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in Khost province in an area near where another four were captured four days earlier.

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