"I would be remiss if I did not ask individual countries to examine very closely the forces and other contributions they can provide as ISAF intensifies its efforts in preparation for the elections in August," said the top US commander for southwest Asia, General David Petraeus.

At a major security conference in Germany, Petraeus read off a list of requests for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, including troops, but also aircraft, medical evacuation facilities, engineers, logistics and trainers.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is battling to spread the influence of the weak Afghan government across the strife-torn country, and trying to foster reconstruction.

But the Taliban, backed by Al-Qaeda, drug lords and criminal gangs, has been waging an increasingly effective insurgency, notably in the south and the east.

Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States have troops on the frontline of that fight, but other allies insist that reconstruction is as important as combat and refuse to redeploy.

British Defence Secretary John Hutton insisted that combat forces were most desperately needed, as only by capturing and holding ground in the hands of the insurgents could the allies ensure that rebuilding can be done.

"Combat forces, that is a most precious contribution right now to that campaign," he said. "We kid ourselves if we imagine that other contributions are as important, right now."

Germany and France have ruled out sending more troops. France has some 2,800 personnel in Afghanistan, while Germany, in an election year, has set a ceiling of 4,500, most of whom are based in the relatively quiet north.

"The number of troops is sufficient, what we need is more reconstruction and a building up of the armed forces," said German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung.

Hutton warned that failure to act would threaten the very future of the NATO operation, its biggest and most ambitious ever.

"We face a moment of choice. I am frustrated, I think probably all of us are. We are fighting, I think, an existential campaign in Afghanistan," he said.

"What I want from NATO is more of a war-time mentality to rise to the challenge that we face."

He also urged Kabul to do more to battle government corruption and the opium trade, which accounts for much of the heroin that arrives on Europe's streets and is also a major source of funds for the Taliban.

"The Afghan government... needs to make more progress in dealing with the problem of corruption and drugs, which we know is a toxic poison."

"I believe we are entitled to ask for better progress in those areas because we cannot ask our soldiers to lay down their lives for anything less," he said to applause from an audience including ministers from several nations.

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