Australian PM in Afghan warning

Mr Rudd's government remains committed to the Afghan conflict

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned his country to expect more combat casualties in Afghanistan, after a commando was killed over the weekend.

L/Cpl Jason Marks became the fifth Australian soldier to die in recent months, after a gun battle with Taleban insurgents in Uruzgan province.

Mr Rudd said 2008 in Afghanistan would be "difficult, dangerous and bloody".

Australia has about 1,000 troops in the country as part of an international reconstruction effort.

Mr Rudd's predecessor, John Howard, committed Australia's troops to serve in Afghanistan as part of a force sent there after a US-led invasion.

Although Mr Rudd has announced plans to withdraw his country's troops from Iraq, his government remains committed to the Afghanistan conflict.

"The Australian nation needs to prepare itself for further losses in the year ahead," Mr Rudd told a news conference.

"We are facing a change of season, as the winter snows melt and the spring thaw begins, which usually indicates a heightening in military activity on the part of the Taleban and al-Qaeda."

Four other troops were injured in the battle in which L/Cpl Marks was killed, about 25km (16 miles) south-east of the town of Tirin Kot on Sunday, the Australian military said.

The attack came hours after militants made an apparent assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai at a ceremony in the capital, Kabul.