David Cameron defends Afghan withdrawal deadline

David Cameron has insisted that UK combat troops will be out of Afghanistan by 2015.

The prime minister told the Nato summit in Lisbon, where the 28 leaders agreed a strategy to transfer military control to Afghanistan by 2014, that the UK deadline was "firm".

He said Afghan forces would begin taking charge of security next year.

That process would be complete by the end of 2014, he added, allowing British troops to leave combat roles by 2015.

"The commitment we have entered into to transfer the lead responsibility for security to the Afghan government by the end of 2014 will pave the way for British combat troops to be out of Afghanistan by 2015," he said.

"This is a firm deadline which we will meet."

He said the UK was the second-biggest contributor of troops and by 2015 they will have spent nine years in Helmand, the "toughest part of Afghanistan".

"We've already paid a very high price, we go on paying that price," he said.

"We know we have an important role in bringing the stability and security that is good for the whole of the world and good for Britain because we still face an Islamic terrorist threat that comes out of the Afghanistan-Pakistan region."

He said Britain would continue to have a relationship with Afghanistan after 2015, through aid and training of Afghan troops.

He added it was "only right" the government was clear with the British public, who deserved to know there was an end-point to the conflict.

There are about 9,500 UK servicemen and women in Afghanistan, with the majority deployed in the south.

The death of Guardsman Christopher Davies on Wednesday brought the total of UK servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan since 2001 to 345.

Thousands of anti-war demonstrators took to the streets of London on Saturday, calling for the end to the war.