BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron has made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan, meeting troops in the southern province of Helmand as the NATO military coalition hands responsibility over to local forces.
The British embassy in Kabul confirmed Cameron's trip to Camp Bastion as Britain marked Armed Forces Day on Saturday.
Britain has about 7900 soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
Cameron visited troops on the front line as a senior British commander said talks with the Taliban should have been attempted a decade ago.
General Nick Carter, deputy commander of the NATO-led coalition, told The Guardian that it would have been more successful to approach the Taliban in 2002 after they were knocked from power.
Speaking in Lashkar Gah in Afghanistan, Cameron told Sky News: "I think you can argue about whether the settlement we put in place after 2001 could have been better arranged. Of course you can make that argument. Since I became prime minister in 2010 I have been pushing all the time for a political process and that political process is now under way.
"But at the same time I know that you cannot bank on that, which is why we have built up the Afghan army, built up the Afghan police, supported the Afghan government so after our troops have left, and they will be leaving under the program we have set out, this country shouldn't be a haven for terrorists."
The British prime minister told reporters: "We want a political solution as well as making sure we have a security solution. What we have done in Afghanistan is we came here to stop it being used as a base for terrorist activities. That has been and is successful.
"What we need to do is build up the Afghan armed forces and at the same time make sure that the politics of Afghanistan enable everyone in Afghanistan to play a role in the future of their country.
"We are making some progress there as well."
Cameron announced that funding from bankers' Libor fines would be used to create a permanent memorial to the 444 British personnel killed in Afghanistan.
He said: "I can announce today that we will be taking more money off the Libor fines and putting it in to military charities including building a permanent memorial at the Staffordshire Arboretum so that we can always remember and future generations can remember those that fell and died here in Afghanistan."
Cameron said the political process should mean "those people prepared to give up the bomb, the bullet, can actually be part of that process, part of that future Afghanistan".
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