NATO has insufficient troops in Afghanistan to secure a victory over Taliban fighters in the coming months, the alliance's top commander said in an interview published on Wednesday.

British army General David Richards also said he hoped the level of fighting toward the end of the year would be far lower than the bloody clashes endured over the summer as his forces focus on enabling reconstruction to gather pace.

"I haven't got enough (to) win this, say, in the next six months, but I can continue to make sufficient improvements to keep the people here confident in us and in their government," Richards told the Financial Times.

The alliance is involved in the biggest and deadliest ground war in its history in Afghanistan, having taken command of U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan in September and Canadian, British and Dutch troops in the south four months ago.

More 3,100 people have been killed so far this year.

Despite the challenges, Richards said it was possible to convince the Afghans his 31,000-strong NATO force was making progress, with help from the fledgling Afghan army and police.

Two new Canadian companies had already arrived in the country and 1,000 Polish troops would be on board in the new year, he said, adding: "I am confident that NATO nations will continue to answer the call."

The 26-member alliance has yet to plug troop shortfalls identified by commanders.

Richards said it had been important to demonstrate to the Afghans that his forces were able to fight and defend them.

"We did prove this but we don't need to carry on doing this in the long term, and I hope the fighting element throughout the winter will be minimal compared with what our troops have had to face in the summer," he told Britain's Times newspaper in a separate interview from Kabul.

"The security situation has improved. The level of violence in the last few weeks has reduced considerably, although there are bound to be tactical blips and setbacks," he said.

"In the last three days we have killed, wounded or captured 150 (insurgents), mostly in the southern provinces of Oruzgan and Zabul."

Looking forward, Richards spoke about a NATO operation launched this week to accelerate reconstruction and development and win back public confidence, dented by the lack of progress.

"I think in the last few months we have managed to stabilize the security situation and now I want to put a security cloak around the reconstruction programs," he said.

"Operation Oqab (Eagle) is the first pan-Afghanistan synchronized mission designed to facilitate more focused and visible reconstruction and governance."

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