"It has become clear that after nine years of occupation, the invaders are doomed towards the same fate as those that tread this path before them," the hardline Islamist group said in an emailed statement.

"Their troop surges, their new strategies, their new generals, their new negotiations, and their new propagandas have been of no avail," it added.

NATO leaders meeting in Lisbon earlier pledged to begin the process of handing over responsibility for security to the Afghan police and military from next year, with a view to ceding full control by the end of 2014.

The agreement comes as the 28-member alliance and its 20 partner nations in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) maintain that they are gaining the upper hand in the nine-year conflict.

US President Barack Obama said Saturday the NATO-led allies "are achieving our objective of breaking Taliban momentum" after committing extra resources to the war.

But the Taliban said the withdrawal plans were a sign the 150,000-strong foreign force, which is mostly made up of US troops, had "exhausted" itself and a huge surge of soldiers to tackle Taliban strongholds in the south had failed.

"The White House has determined July 2011 as the deadline to begin withdrawing their defeated invader forces from Afghanistan," the statement said in English.

It added: "What they could not gain in the last few months with their then-fresh troops, they will not be able to gain in Kandahar, with their now demoralised and fearful troops.

"It is becoming manifest that the Americans will not be able to conceal their defeat in Afghanistan for too long.

"Therefore, the White House, instead of counting their mounting casualties in Afghanistan, would be better advised to formulate a withdrawal plan, to at least save those troops which are still alive."

Foreign military casualties are at their highest since the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban from power after the September 11 attacks in 2001, with more than 650 deaths so far this year, many of them caused by guerrilla-style roadside bomb attacks.

But NATO's top civilian official in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said this week that foreign forces have "regained the initiative" this year due to the surge and targeted counter-insurgency tactics.

Military commanders in and around the Taliban's spiritual home of Kandahar city also talk of progress in securing the region and winning the support of more local people.

The Taliban, which has repeatedly called for foreign forces to leave the country, rejected the claims and pledged to continue its campaign even as the harsh Afghan winter sets in.

Last week the group's reclusive, one-eyed leader, Mullah Omar, also predicted defeat for NATO forces, ruled out peace talks to end the conflict and said claims that negotiations were under way were "misleading rumours".

Omar, who is believed to have fled to neighbouring Pakistan after the Taliban were ousted from power, also vowed to "entangle the enemy in an exhausting war of attrition and wear it away like the former Soviet Union".

"This will force it (to) face disintegration after dealing a crushing and decisive blow at it that it would not be able to hold itself thereafter," he added in a statement.

burs/mtp

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