国际英语新闻：British PM says Afghan war has reached critical stage

LONDON, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Britain's new Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday told the House of Commons that the war in Afghanistan had reached a critical phase, and warned of further casualties.

Britain has nearly 10,000 soldiers fighting in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force.

Cameron, who has been prime minister for just over a month after forming a coalition government in mid-May, said that for the war in Afghanistan "this is the vital year."

Cameron has just returned from a two-day visit to British troops in Afghanistan, his first since becoming prime minister.

He added that he "must warn of further casualties over the summer" as the fighting season begins again.

"Our forces will not remain in Afghanistan a day longer than is necessary and I want to bring them home the moment it is safe to do so," he told members of parliament.

He added that "the threat from Al Qaeda from Afghanistan and from Pakistan has reduced," but would grow again if troops left now.

Cameron's statement came only a day after the coalition government announced it was going to remove the professional head of the armed forces -- the navy, the army, and the air force -- known as the Chief of the Defense Staff (CDS) from his office in the autumn.

The CDS Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup has been in his post since 2006, a period during which the British military presence in Afghanistan has increased and with it casualties.

The British forces have suffered nearly 300 fatalities in Afghanistan, and Stirrup has been criticized over lack of provision of equipment for the troops, especially helicopters to speed movement and suitable equipment to tackle booby trap bombs, which have caused hundreds of casualties.

The chief civil servant at the Ministry of Defense will also be removed from his post in the autumn.

Cameron's defense secretary Liam Fox gave a speech on the future direction of defense policy at the Royal United Services Institute in London on Monday morning.

Fox said that defense spending, which totals more than 35 billion pounds a year (about 57 billion U.S. dollars), needs to be reduced.

Defense spending is protected for this budget year, 2010-11, but after that it is open for severe cuts.

Fox said: "Contractual and structural commitments on personnel and equipment mean that the budget is very heavily committed for each of the next four years, severely limiting our room for maneuver."

He highlighted medium- and long-term spending commitments as areas where cuts would be made. "We face some difficult, delicate and politically-charged decisions. There are competing priorities, risks to manage and budgets to balance," Fox said.

"We must act ruthlessly and without sentiment. It is inevitable that there will be the perception of winners and losers as we go through this process," he added.

He said military thinking needed a radical change, and there must be a "clean break from the military and political mindset of Cold War politics."

The British government is currently engaged in a strategic defense review, the first in more than a decade, which will set the path for defense strategy over the coming 10-15 years.

The coalition agreement between the majority Conservative party and the minority Liberal Democrat party protected Britain's strategic nuclear missile force from cuts, and committed the government to a continued permanent deployment of the missiles at sea through a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

Other areas of defense spending were not protected, and could be targets for cuts. These include the navy's program for two aircraft carriers, the largest ships the navy has operated to date. Building has already begun on one of these.

Fox set targets for the British forces in Afghanistan, and his words left open the door for them to start leaving next summer, when U.S. forces are expected to start their withdrawal. Fox said: "By the end of the year I expect that we can show significant progress, consolidating in central Helmand and accelerating the training of the Afghan national security forces."