but lord malik brown says somalia and pakistan prevent a greater threat. interestingly, just ahead of the prime minister's press conference, he's issued a clarification, saying they're without doubts sufficient resources for current british military operations in afghanistan. >>> prime minister gordon brown also weighed in today. saying that british forces do have enough helicopters for the current mission andta more are on the way. >>> the war in afghanistan is growing on every front. and there are some concerns in that part of the world that it could spill over into neighboring central asian countries with predominantly muslim populations. one of those countries is kyrgyzstan where the u.s. has an important base. as we hear now in this report from deutsche welle the kyrgyzs are debating a military presence there. >> reporter: waiting for the next flights to afghanistan, the manas air base in northern kyrgyzstan is a vital link in the supply chain providing u.s. forces in afghanistan with fuel, hardware and additional troops. but all of this costs money,

now the foreign office minister lord malik brown has stepped into the fray tellinghe daily telegrap -- >> we definily tonight have enoughelicopters. whenou have insurgent strikes what you needbove alllse is mobility. >> rorter: 18 britishsoldiers have died in afgnistan since the beginning of thi month. 15 of them were killed either by expsions or ieds. seve british sodiers have died in operaonanther claw. brow says that should he been forewarned abouthe likelihood about the sudden rising casualties stemming fr this offensive. dispos bomb expert who died on mond in helmand. e 28-yr-old from the royal logistic corps is describe by his commanding officer as unbelievably courageous. his we says she has not ju lost a husband but a best frnd. appear not only a war in afghanistan but also a bate between the britis army and downingstreet. the invention of malik brownwho leavehis post at the end of this week. criticized the governme for failing to supply eugh troops, equipment o vehicles. the chief dissenttaff have made simar asseions. >> the mo that you can increase your tactical flexibility

. >> has there been a call forum and, for yourself or bordelli brown -- lord malik brown and his statement this morning? >> norah doubt there are conversations taking place. -- no doubt there are conversations taking place. it is clear that i clarify the comments that were reported in today's daily telegraph. he goes on to say that there is no difference of opinion between us on helicopters and he, too, was talking about the future allocation of helicopters. >> if you put that clarification to one side, you accept his other point that the main threats of terrorists being exported from that part of the world comes from somalia and pakistan and not afghanistan, and that is why there should be questions are around this? >> he is not saying there is a terrorist threat. what happened -- let's be clear. the terrorist threat from afghanistan was cleared out by the allies clearing up the taliban government. al qaeda moved. there is a pakistan taliban and there is an afghanistan taliban. if we allow terrorist attacks on the streets of britain, we have got to be safe and deal with the threats from a