Britain will send an extra 1,000 soldiers to bolster its force in Afghanistan, a move that will be announced in the coming days, the Guardian newspaper reported.Defence minister Des Browne is expected to address Parliament on Monday to provide lawmakers with details of the deployment. The increase is to come less than a week after Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that Britain will be withdrawing 1,600 of its soldiers from Iraq in the coming months.A Defence Ministry spokesman would not comment on the report but said force levels in Afghanistan were constantly under review to make certain commanders have the troops they need. If any changes are made, they will be announced to Parliament, he said.Britain has more than 5,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, concentrated in the volatile southern Helmand province. In all, NATO has about 35,000 troops in the region.Since the beginning of operations in November 2001, 48 British soldiers have been killed in the region.
