Britain's Brown rejects Afghanistan criticism

LONDON, England (CNN) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown Monday rejected the charge that British troops are dying unnecessarily in Afghanistan because they do not have enough helicopters.

"British armed forces are better equipped today than at any time... in the past 40 years." Brown insisted.

"In the last two years we have increased helicopter numbers by 60 percent and... capacity by 84 percent," he told the House of Commons.

But opposition leader David Cameron argued that helicopter capacity in Afghanistan has not risen as fast as troop levels.

"Isn't the real point this, that the number of troops has doubled since 2006, so proportionally there hasn't really been in increase in helicopter capacity at all?" the leader of the Conservative party demanded.

The former chief of the defense staff, Charles Guthrie, "has said more helicopters would save lives," Cameron said.

The United Kingdom has been shocked by the death of 15 British troops in Afghanistan in 10 days, including eight in a 24-hour period.

The eight dead are the largest number of British troops killed in a single day since the Falklands war in 1982.

Brown named them individually at the beginning of his statement to lawmakers, noting that three of them were "just 18 years old."

"It's a sad fact that helicopters would not have saved the lives of the individuals last week," he said, citing Lt. Col. Nick Richardson, a British military spokesman in Afghanistan.