Britain has a plan to send extra troops to Afghanistan next year to fight al-Qaeda fighters and heroin dealers, British Defense Secretary John Reid was quoted by Sky News TV on Friday as saying.

Reid made the remarks during a brief visit to Afghanistan. He said Britain plans to send a "sizable" number of soldiers into Afghanistan's southern Helmand region, which churns out half of the country's heroin production.

There was no details on the number of soldiers to be sent but the Sky News reported it was believed that as many as 4,000 could be committed in addition to the current 900 troops.

"If we are going to do that I want to make sure it is of sufficient size to accomplish the task. It would be a sufficient number of soldiers, but would also need a degree of mobility," said the secretary.

The extra troops would be deployed for counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency operations, said Reid.

Source: Xinhua