Tony Blair, storbritannias forrige statsminister, frykter at Afghanistan skal bli et nytt Irak. De relativt begrensede kamphandlingene i Afghanistan kan bli spredd til hele landet og vi kan få en konflikt som er like blodig og alvorlig som i Irak. - Faren for at de allierte styrkene i Afghanistan begraves i en langvarig og blodig konflikt er absoulutt til stede, sier Blair til the Scotsman. Les hele artikkelen nedenfor.

Britains envoy in Kabul also described the Taleban resistance facing British troops as "very scary".

Further fuelling concern, the International Red Cross said that, since last year, violence has "significantly intensified" in the south and east of the country - where British forces are operating - and is spreading to the north and west.

The warnings came almost a year to the day after the first British soldier was killed following a major deployment to take on the Taleban in the spring of 2006. Since the death of Captain Jim Phillipson of 7 Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery on 11 June last year, 53 British personnel have died in Afghanistan. There are more than 6,000 British troops in Afghanistan, and the number will rise to 7,700 by the end of the year, making the deployment there bigger than in Iraq.

Britain is taking part in a NATO-led mission meant to stabilise Afghanistan and prevent the Taleban militia regaining control of the country, from where al-Qaeda planned the 9/11 attacks on the US.

When John Reid, then Defence Secretary, first announced details of the British mission in Afghanistan, he expressed the hope that British troops would be able to leave "without firing a single shot". But British commanders say their men are now regularly involved in firefights more intense than any experienced by the British Army since the Korean War.

Speaking in London yesterday, the Prime Minister conceded that Western governments had underestimated the difficulties of trying to establish a stable democracy in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The mistake was not understanding the fundamentally rooted nature of this global movement and that in a situation - whether Iraq or Afghanistan, where you are trying to bring about a different form of government - these people will try to stop us," he said.

Accepting that al-Qaeda has become a force in Iraq since the US-led invasion, Mr Blair added: "The worry is that we must be careful that Afghanistan is not then subject to the same attempt to undermine and collapse the proper support for democracy."

On Sunday, Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, survived a Taleban attempt to assassinate him in a rocket attack.

Sherard Cowper-Coles, the UK ambassador to Afghanistan, painted a bleak picture of the situation.

In the south and east there is a "serious and chronic insurgency", he said in a BBC radio interview. "It is very scary and will take time to tackle."

Meanwhile, General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British Army, accepted that military success in 2001 that toppled the Taleban was "not properly capitalised on". Asked if British forces are "winning" in Afghanistan, Gen Jackson said: "Well, we're certainly not losing."

In a statement last night, the Foreign Office described the situation in Afghanistan as "difficult, complex and challenging".

The statement added: "Of course, there is much still to do - that is why we and our international partners are working hard to provide a stable and secure environment so that further improvements can be made to build up the capacity of the Afghan government and improve peoples lives."

And the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "We have always known this was going to be a long, drawn-out struggle."

• GUNMEN riding on a motorbike fired at girls outside a school in Afghanistan yesterday, killing two and wounding six, the authorities said.

The attack took place in Logar province, south of the capital, Kabul, at the end of the school day. The attackers fled.

Hanif Atmar, the education minister, blamed Taleban guerrillas and their al-Qaeda allies for the attack.

During their rule, the Taleban barred girls from education and women from most work outside the home.

Since their fall from power, the Taleban have been blamed for burning many schools and killing several teachers. They have also warned people against sending their girls to school.

About 200,000 children cannot go to school in southern and eastern areas where the Taleban are most active.