Some NATO nations were portraying the risks as larger than they were to try to attract reinforcements for the alliance's International Security Assistance Force, ministry spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters.

"We agree there are threats," Azimi told reporters when asked about calls for ISAF nations to make a deeper commitment to Afghanistan where they are helping Afghan forces confront Taliban rebels and their allies in Al-Qaeda.

But he told AFP after the media briefing: "The scale of the threat is not as serious as being shown outside Afghanistan."

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has led calls for reluctant European countries to contribute more troops to ISAF, warning at the weekend the failure of the international force here would increase the security threat to Europe.

"On one side there is the reality in Afghanistan and on the other side, what NATO says," Azimi said at the briefing. "When NATO talk among themselves, they try to show the concerns are big.

"They have good reasons for it -- it is to attract more support from NATO members to Afghanistan," the general said, adding the aim was to secure more aid, troops and attention to help the country.

"But when we look at the realities inside Afghanistan, it is totally different to what is being raised as concerns."

Afghanistan itself was better placed than last year -- the deadliest of the insurgency -- to tackle the rebels, the spokesman said.

"At the beginning of last year we had about 30,000 troops. Now, as we speak, we have over 60,000. Last year, we did not have good equipment, weapons -- this year we do," the general said.

"Putting all these facts together, we are in a better position as we go to the battlefields this year, in 2008," Azimi said, adding though that the threats from suicide attacks and bombings remained.

Azimi accompanied Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak to a conference of NATO members in Munich last week where he said Afghanistan received renewed commitment from its Western allies.

Despite the wrangling among ISAF nations, "NATO has no dispute in their long-term commitment to Afghanistan," he said.

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