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MILITARY commanders need an extra 3,000 troops in Afghanistan to contain the Taliban, according to senior defence sources. They have also called for more talks with leaders in northern Helmand province in an attempt to separate them from the Taliban.

The calls came as Afghan officials claimed that an adviser to the United Nations and a European Union official expelled last week had $150,000 (£75,000) with them. According to Kabul, the men were trying to buy off a local Taliban leader in Musa Qala.

MI6, Britain’s secret intelligence service, was heavily involved in bribing Taliban leaders in southern Afghanistan to change sides during the 2001 operation to remove the group from power.

British officials have been careful to distance current MI6 talks with Taliban commanders in Helmand from the expulsions of Michael Semple, the Irish head of the EU mission, and Mervyn Patterson, a British adviser to the UN.

The town of Musa Qala - scene of a previous truce brokered by British special forces - was retaken by British and Afghan troops this month after a Taliban commander changed sides. When Semple and Patterson were detained, they had the cash and data on their laptops showing they had made previous payments to a local Taliban leader, according to Afghan officials.

Senior British commanders believe last year’s Musa Qala truce, brokered by the Special Boat Service, should have been the blueprint for others across Helmand. But after Dan McNeil, an American general, took over as commander of Nato forces in February and denounced the deal, it was broken by US air attacks.

The commanders say they have no problem taking ground from the Taliban but do not have enough men to hold it.

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