By Kristin Roberts KABUL, Dec. 4 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's army chief on Tuesday asked the United States for more security trainers and equipment to fight an insurgency led by Taliban militants, saying the aid given so far was generous but inadequate. General Bismillah Khan asked U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to act quickly on delivering needed help. "The biggest problem is we don't have enough mentors, enough advisers," Khan told Gates after the two toured the Kabul Military Training Centre. "I need your prompt attention on this matter." "The U.S. government has been more than generous but our weapons are not adequate," he told the Pentagon chief through a translator. Khan specifically asked for small arms, mortars and armoured vehicles. Gates said the Pentagon was looking for ways to expedite delivery of needed weapons and supplies to Afghanistan. But he stressed that other NATO partners in Afghanistan must dedicate more resources to the war effort. He has repeatedly called on Europe to send more trainers, combat troops and equipment to Afghanistan and has argued that any progress made in the war could be lost if NATO cannot muster the resources that commanders say they need. "I feel like I am the salesman around the world for Afghanistan," he said, noting he had also asked China and Japan for help in the war during a recent visit to those countries. "In the meantime, we will continue to do all we can," Gates said. RISING VIOLENCE Gates was on his third trip to Afghanistan since replacing Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon in December 2006. His current trip to Afghanistan is to assess foreign military commanders' needs following two years of rising violence by a Taliban that has been able to regroup and regain territory. Attacks have climbed 30 percent in some areas and suicide bombings are up from a year ago in Afghanistan, a war often overshadowed in the United States by combat in Iraq. Gates will next week meet the defence ministers of countries that have troops in Afghanistan's south, the most violent area of the country. He also visited commanders and local officials in Khost, an area that borders Pakistan. U.S. military officers in Khost told Gates security had improved there thanks to new efforts to work directly in local government centres in a bid to help build the capacity of domestic officials. Those U.S. military officers also asked Gates for more money, saying another $450 million would pay for more improvements to infrastructure and basic services. Specifically it would help build an airport and power plant. U.S. defence officials concede that military gains made in the early stages of the Afghanistan war, particularly in 2002 and 2003, were lost because reconstruction efforts did not follow. "These are the conditions that we're putting in place that we didn't in 2002," Colonel Martin Schweitzer told Gates of U.S. and Afghan reconstruction efforts in Khost. (Editing by Sayed Salahuddin and Alex Richardson)
