FAILURE IN Afghanistan would be a “disaster” for Britain, the Government warned last night amid renewed questions over whether the military campaign can ever be successful.

Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said the country needed to “show some resolution” as opinion polls indicated public support for the mission was waning in the face of continuing heavy losses.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague admitted the Conservatives were “very worried” about the prospect of having to take over such a difficult situation in Afghanistan if they came to power.

The head of the armed forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, acknowledged that progress was “painful, slow and halting” but he insisted that the mission was “do-able”.

The Ministry of Defence disclosed that two more British soldiers had been killed in explosions over the weekend.

The men – one from the 4th Battalion, The Rifles and the other from the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles, who was serving with the 4th Battalion – died in separate incidents around Sangin, central Helmand. Next of kin have been informed.

Their losses took the total number of British personnel killed in Afghanistan as a result of hostile action to 201, and the overall death toll since the start of operations in 2001 to 232.

They came at the end of another bloody week for British forces, which began with the killing on Tuesday of five soldiers by an Afghan policeman who they had been helping to train.