* Foreign Office minister says more helicopters needed * Finance minister says has funded all army requests LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Foreign Office minister Mark Malloch-Brown said on Wednesday that British soldiers needed more helicopters in Afghanistan, contradicting government claims that its troops have sufficient equipment. British forces are suffering one of their bloodiest months in the conflict as they take part in an offensive in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province against the Taliban. "We definitely don't have enough helicopters," said Malloch-Brown, a former United Nations deputy-secretary general, who stands down from the government at the end of the month. "When you have these modern operations and insurgent strikes what you need, above all else, is mobility," he told the Daily Telegraph in an interview. His comments are likely to fuel a chorus of complaints that Britain's 9,000 troops in Afghanistan are fighting without the proper support. Gaps have emerged between what the government, facing budget constraints, thinks is sufficient and what military commanders say they want. This month, 18 soldiers have been killed, including eight in one day. Most of them were victims of roadside bombs. That has provoked anger about a lack of helicopters that means more units have to travel by road, exposing them to mines, bombs and boobytraps. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted there are enough helicopters and armoured equipment to support the force deployed. Chancellor (finance minister) Alastair Darling defended the government's record, saying that he had financed all requests for troops and equipment for Afghanistan and was never told by army chiefs it was not enough. "So far as we are concerned the troops are doing a job of work in Helmand province and the army has said this is what we want in terms of troops and equipment and we have provided that and financed it," he told the weekly Tribune Magazine. The United States, Britain and other forces in the NATO-led coalition launched an offensive across southern Afghanistan this month to seize back territory from the Taliban and build security ahead of a presidential election on Aug. 20. (Reporting by Tim Castle; Editing by Dominic Evans)
A U.S. soldier of 4th Battalion, 25th Field Artillery Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is silhouetted against sunset as he carries a grenade launcher on top of an armored vehicle ...
