General Jim Jones predicted, however, that the NATO troops will be able to quickly bring the region under control once they complete their move into the south by July.

He said the deployment of British, Canadian, Dutch, Romanian and US troops under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force will put more military forces into the region than have been there until now, he said.

"The ratio will be very favorable to our side, and ... very quickly we will establish order in parts of the country that have not known that," he said in a question-and-answer session at the National Press Club.

Jones said levels of violence were up but he tied that to the movement of Afghan and coalition forces into new areas and Taliban moves against the NATO expansion.

"Some people say it is active, it is message sending, a strategic move, a way to discourage and intimidate countries that are thinking of sending troops there, to get the political discussion going," said the general, who also leads the US European command.

"I think we'll have to wait and see," he said.

Jones said he was more concerned in the long term over the outcome of the war on drugs in Afghanistan than a resurgent Taliban.

With narcotics accounting for about half the country's gross domestic product, the drug trade "bleeds into the system of law and order, the police system, the corruption, and the like."

"The quicker Afghanistan becomes whatever it is going to become depends on other factors not directly associated with military forces," he said.

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