Washington, Dec 14 : Any large-scale withdrawal of international forces from Afghanistan would help the enemy and undermine gains, a confidential US military report has claimed.

The withdrawal of troops should instead be avoided until as late as possible before the 2014 deadline for an end of the combat operations, The Independent quoted the report, as saying.

Although US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron are facing intense pressure to bring troops home as quickly as possible from the decade-long war, the study highlights the need for about 2,000 more battle-hardened veterans to be brought for deployment alongside Afghan forces.

Senior commanders, led by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir David Richards, have stressed that an early withdrawal could undermine the exit strategy.

"We hope the Prime Minister is content to take military advice. But everyone is really watching to see what the Americans do. If they go for a faster drawdown, then David Cameron may feel he cannot expose his political flanks. But we all know the problems getting out too fast would lead to," a senior British General said.

The Pentagon document states that taking out additional troops next year, excluding the 33,000 troops sent by Obama in the recent "surge", would make it difficult to hold ground captured from insurgents.

The Pentagon analysts insisted that even with an accelerated training programme, the Afghan army and police would not be in a position to take over a workable level of responsibility for security until 2014.

This is one of the reasons given for the 2,000 extra mentors to be embedded with designated Afghan units in the intervening period.

"This may not be as easy as it sounds. We are looking at experienced personnel, senior non-commissioned officers, captains, majors, prepared to do some hard tasking," an official familiar with the report said.

"This is where the Brits can come in. They have done a great mentoring job in Helmand and can provide the right qualities. Another option would be private military contractors, but that is not a path we want to go down," he added. (ANI)