Wellington, April 25 NZPA - The head of the Defence Force has defended New Zealand's involvement in the Afghanistan conflict, saying the country is "doing its bit".

There are about 220 Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan including a provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan Province and the Special Air Services (SAS) who last year returned to Afghanistan as part of an 18-month commitment, training an elite group of Afghan commandos known as the Crisis Response Unit.

Lieutenant-General Jerry Mateparae told TVNZ programme Question and Answer that New Zealand was contributing to an international effort.

"Well what we are doing, as we did in 1915, is doing our bit, and you know when you belong to a community you do have to muck in and help. I guess that's what we're doing, you know, I can see that the effort that we're putting in there is making sure that we don't have to make another effort somewhere else."

Prime Minister John Key has indicated that he wants to pull the majority of troops out of Afghanistan within five years.

Lt Gen Mataparae said the mandate for New Zealand Forces to Afghanistan would finish next September while the SAS mandate was for 18 months.

"So we're matching how we operate in Afghanistan to the conditions in Afghanistan, and also to the conditions at home in relation to just how much the Defence Force can commit, in the event that we've got other things that we need to be concerned about in our own area, we've got modernisation plans that are unrolling, we've got other things to look to."

He said there has been some success in Afghanistan and good progress had been made in Bamiyan.

"I certainly think that over the last eight to nine months that there has been an incremental change and a positive change, in the situation, the security situation... what we need to see though is an improvement in the development side but also in the politicking that's going on. Now I am aware that (President Hamid Karzai) also wants through a jirga [assembly], through a peace jirga, to engage a lot more people. Now how we might do it, is not necessarily how Afghans would want to do it."

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