US President George W. Bush on Wednesday acknowledged "a tough month" for NATO and US-led forces in Afghanistan but said he was confident that the war-fighting strategy there was working.
"It has been a tough month in Afghanistan, but it's also been a tough month for the Taliban," he said, after the coalition in June suffered its deadliest month since the 2001 ouster of the Islamist militia.
But "I'm confident that the strategy is going to work," added Bush, sidestepping a question on whether he would send more US troops there by saying that he is constantly reviewing the needs on the ground.
"One reason why there have been more deaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy" deeply at odds with the United States, he said. "Of course there's going to be resistance."
"We're constantly reviewing troop needs, troop levels. We're halfway through 2008. As I said, we're going to increase troops by 2009," said the US president.
"We're constantly reassessing and seeing whether or not, you know, we can change tactics in order to achieve our objective," he said.
The official figures also showed that the casualty levels in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq for the second month in a row.
Forty-nine soldiers from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the separate US-led coalition died in combat, attacks or accidents in June, according to an AFP tally based on military statements.
June accounted for more than 40 percent of the 122 deaths of foreign soldiers in Afghanistan during 2008, according to the independent website icasualties.org.
Most were killed by roadside bombs hitting their convoys or patrols.
By contrast, 31 soldiers including 29 Americans were killed in Iraq in June despite the fact that there are more than twice as many troops there as in Afghanistan, icasualties figures showed.
International casualties in Afghanistan also outstripped those in Iraq in May.
Foreign soldier deaths in Afghanistan hit 23 during May, 19 of them by hostile fire, while in Iraq the number of coalition soldiers killed dropped to 21 in that month, 17 of them in action.
