Insurgent attacks in eastern Afghanistan rose by 40 per cent in the first five months of this year over the same period a year ago, the US commander of Nato forces in the region said on Tuesday.

While insisting Nato was making progress in establishing stability, Army Maj-Gen Jeffrey Schloesser said he was "nowhere near" being able to state those efforts had achieved irreversible momentum.

Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon by video-link from Afghanistan, Schloesser also said attacks by Taliban and other insurgents were becoming increasingly complex and targeted sites such as schools to disrupt economic development.

Schloesser said success in Afghanistan would ultimately come not through military operations but when Afghans "sitting on the fence" concluded their government offered a better quality of life and decided to oppose insurgent groups.

"I can`t predict how long it`s going to take. I can say that I believe we`re making progress," he said. Schloesser said the rise in violence was not unexpected as attacks had increased every year since 2002.

Schloesser said one reason for the rise in attacks this year was that international and Afghan forces had gone into areas where they had not operated before to hunt insurgents. "We are actually hunting down the enemy of the Afghan people and trying to rout them," he said.

"We`re giving them four options -- they can flee, get out of their country, they can reconcile or they can be captured or killed." He did not provide the raw numbers behind the percentage increase he cited.

He said success in Afghanistan would require much work from the international community and patience from Americans. "We`re clearly not done and I am nowhere near yet able to say that we have reached irreversible momentum," he said.

End.

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