General James Jones, after visiting the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the U.N.-mandated peacekeeping troops under British command, told the International Herald Tribune he repeatedly asked member states to keep their promises to deliver additional helicopters, transport planes and troops.

"I am asking for the forces we asked for 18 months ago," Jones told the newspaper. "It is not that we are making new demands. We have generated about 85 percent of the force that is required. In view of the hostilities that are going on, especially in the southern region, the commander on the ground said if he had the full kit he would be in very, very good shape."

All 26 NATO countries are delaying in sending additional troops, he said. "People are dying."

International observers agree that the situation in Afghanistan is slowly getting out of hand.

"I think the development in Afghanistan now is at a tipping point; it could go either way," Rolf Tophoven, a German terrorism expert, recently told United Press International in an exclusive interview. "The Taliban have come back better equipped... We know that because of the type of bombs now used there, and the types of ambushes that are set. The Taliban now fight against battalion-sized international units."

He added the focus of insurgents had moved from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The situation is most critical in the southern provinces of the country, around Kandahar, where British, Canadian and Dutch troops are facing an ever-mounting death toll.

Tophoven's view is shared by Brig. Gen. Ed Butler, the commander of the British troops in Afghanistan, who told British news channel ITV that in the south of Afghanistan, "the intensity and ferocity of the fighting is far greater than in Iraq."

The German armed forces, the second-largest contributor to ISAF with some 2,700 soldiers, are exclusively stationed in the much more peaceful North, where they are focused on re-building missions.

It surfaced last week that voices inside ISAF have called for Berlin to send some of its troops down south to help bring the fragile situation there under control. But Berlin has refused to even consider such a move, which would require the backing of Germany's parliament -- and ISAF would likely get a 'no' from German lawmakers.

"Germany will keep concentrating on the North for its activities to help stabilize the situation," a government spokesman said last week.

The question is: How long is that 'no' going to be bearable? Observers say not forever.

"It's going to be more and more difficult for Germany to argue that its soldiers operate exclusively in the north, while the other countries have to take heavy heat in the more dangerous south," Benjamin Schreer, a military expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, a Berlin-based think tank, told UPI recently.

Afghanistan needs the help desperately: The level of corruption is immense, and the local police and the Afghan military are ill-equipped to stop drug lords from expanding their illegal opium networks. Opium, the raw material used to make heroin, may account for as much as half of the country's gross domestic product, according to recent estimates.

People in Afghanistan are poor, and that's why they increasingly turn to the Taliban for aid, observers say, while calling for more international aid to flow into the country to undermine support for the militants.

But there is more trouble lurking around the corner: ISAF plans to overlook poppy production, a move that will result in even more resistance from the warlords, observers say.

The international community, however, remains reluctant to commit more troops or money in the wake of other developments in the region, namely troop commitments for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.

UNIFIL has sparked heated discussions in Europe (mainly in Italy, Germany and France) over how many international missions the countries can handle.

Germany, for example, has confined its contribution to UNIFL to the sea border, which it has offered to control with navy frigates, a move that will most likely avoid combat. But even such a "safe" mission was hotly debated in Berlin.

Fearing it would destroy their popular support, the world's governments are refusing to send more troops into the death zone that is the Afghan south, even if it's just the move the country needs right now.

Charity Issues Afghanistan Drought Warning

Millions of people in Aghanistan face starvation after drought destroyed much of the harvest in the north and west, the charity Christian Aid warned Sunday. The threat adds to the problems in the war-shattered country as international troops battle insurgents loyal to the deposed Taliban regime battle in the south.

Christian Aid, an agency of the churches in Britain and Ireland, looked at 66 villages and found that farmers in the worst-affected areas had lost all of their crops after the rains failed last winter and spring.

Their study found that most of the water sources in Herat, Badghis and Ghor provinces had dried up while the wheat harvest was down by 90 to 100 percent in parts of Faryab.

The study discovered that 90 to 100 percent of the rain-dependent harvest in Herat had gone, while the harvest reliant on irrigation was down by 40 percent.

There was a 70- to 90-percent drop in the harvest in the province of Ghor.

Christian Aid urged international donors to plege funds for Afghanistan's emergency drought appeal -- set up by the Afghan government and the United Nations -- which needs 76 million dollars (60 million euros).

"People are not dying of starvation yet, but it is very obvious that a great deal of help is needed or the situation will become very serious within a few months," said Sultan Maqsood Fazel, from Christian Aid in Afghanistan.

"Meat is scarce in some areas and people are telling us that their food supplies will not last much longer."

The survey found that farm workers were leaving areas severely affected by drought to find work, placing pressure on other areas with water supplies.

Christian Aid estimates that more than one million people in the provinces of Badghis, Farah, Faryab, Ghor, and Herat were affected by the drought.

Doctor Ahmad Zia Shams, from the Agency for Humanitarian and Development Assistance in Afghanistan, said: "There is a shortage of water in rivers and wells and the rapidly falling water tables have resulted in an acute shortage of drinking water and water for irrigating farmland."

In July, the UN and the Afghan government said that 2.5 million people were suffering from food shortages, in addition to the 6.5 million Afghans in rural areas who suffer from annual seasonal food shortages.

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