LONDON: Britain’s new Defence Secretary John Hutton warned yesterday that 2009 will be a hard year for troops in Afghanistan amid questions over whether US president-elect Barack Obama will lead a change of direction.

In his first speech on the conflict, Hutton said next year would “test the resolve of the international community” but pledged resolution, saying the security arguments for being there were “stronger today than in 2001.”

He also hinted at a difference with the future US administration over how to tackle militants in the sensitive border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“2008 has been a tough year for UK forces and coalition forces,” he told an audience at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank in London.

“And with national elections in 2009, the coming 12 months are likely to be equally as tough. It is going to test the resolve of the international community.”

Hutton cited a “fragile” governance system and the narcotics trade as among the biggest ongoing problems.

The fresh challenge will come as Obama, who wants to send more troops to Afghanistan in a bid to “destroy” Al Qaeda, takes over as commander-in-chief of US forces from January.

Like Prime Minister Gordon Brown in comments earlier yesterday, Hutton did not comment on whether Britain would send more troops to Afghanistan but stressed that other countries in the NATO alliance must play a full role.

Hutton, who started the job last month, said Britain would “continue to play our part in... Afghanistan because our national security depends on it.”

But he added: “No one can say that the UK is not pulling our weight in the international coalition. We expect others to do the same.”

Brown had said that Britain was “ready to consider what’s necessary but it must be part of a burden-sharing exercise.”

Brown made the comments when asked if Britain would comply with a request by US president-elect Obama for more troops as part of a switch of focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, where Britain has more than 8,000 soldiers already.

British military chiefs have long warned of overstretch in the armed forces, currently supporting major deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

The head of the armed forces, Jock Stirrup, said on Sunday that he would oppose troops being transferred to Afghanistan following an expected drawdown in Iraq next year.

Commentators expect Obama to seek bigger deployments in Afghanistan from NATO countries including Germany which have fewer troops there than Britain in the face of widespread public opposition.

Hutton also hinted at convergence with the future US administration over how to tackle violence linked to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area.

On the campaign trail, Obama said he would launch military strikes on Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan if the Pakistani government was unwilling to do so.

But Hutton took a more conciliatory approach, backing “cross-border security cooperation” and saying support for Islamabad and good relations with the Pakistan military were “as important as any element in our Afghan strategy”.

Pakistan is a former British colony and there are almost a million ethnic Pakistanis in Britain