General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, said that British troops were "getting stuck in" to militia from the deposed Taliban regime and said the soldiers' presence was vital for rebuilding the country.

He was speaking just hours before the Ministry of Defence announced that a British soldier had been killed in clashes in the restive province of Helmand.

"It is with regret that we can confirm that a member of the UK Armed Forces has been killed in action this afternoon during ongoing operations against insurgent positions in Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan," the ministry said.

The person is the 10th British troop to die in Helmand in the last two months.

Jackson, soon to retire, told BBC television: "We, the international community, must be doing what we're doing in Afghanistan.

"We cannot afford to let that country go back to where it was, as a safe haven for international terrorism. That is simply unacceptable.

"The notion that somehow the Taliban in southern Afghanistan would not react to a much-increased international military presence seems to me to be very ill-founded indeed. They were bound to react and they have done."

He added: "We are getting stuck in.

"The other side of that coin is that in which case, don't do this at all, let the Taliban take over Afghanistan again, let Al-Qaeda have another safe haven there."

He was reacting after an unnamed senior officer told The Sunday Telegraph that troops were extremely tired as they battled Taliban militia and the fierce heat.

"The men are knackered -- they are on the brink of exhaustion," the source told the weekly newspaper.

"They are under considerable duress and have suffered great hardship.

"This is a situation which is ultimately unsustainable. The shock of battle, the lack of sleep and back-to-back operations are beginning to impact on the troops."

The newspaper said commanders on the ground wanted an extra 1,000 soldiers.

Britain sent 3,600 troops to Helmand earlier this year and announced last month that a further 900 would be dispatched.

On Monday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force took command of nearly 8,000 troops in southern Afghanistan from a US-led coalition that toppled the Taliban in 2001.

The main opposition Conservatives weighed in, with homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer saying it was "completely incomprehensible" that more troops were not on the way to Afghanistan.

Leader David Cameron, who recently visited troops in Afghanistan, told BBC radio: "I am not saying necessarily that there should be far more troops sent, but a number of people said that there really is such a need for helicopters and military aircraft to make sure we are a really mobile force."

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