According to the official reports, Britain will replace its armed forces chief and the top official at the defense ministry, a decision indicating that changes are in stock for one of Europe's biggest armed forces.

Air Chief Marshal Jock Stirrup, the head of the military, and Bill Jeffrey, a permanent undersecretary at the British Defense Ministry, would leave their posts several months earlier than expected, officials in London have said.

Defense Secretary Liam Fox told The Sunday Times of London, "Both the chief of defense staff and the permanent undersecretary are here longer than they needed to be."

Fox further said that they were scheduled to serve until April 2011 but will now quit this fall, when Britain is due to publish a major defense review.

Fox, in an interview with the BBC, denied that Stirrup was let go due to allegations he hadn't done enough to support the 9,500 British troops in Afghanistan.

He further said, "I really don't think that whatever mistakes have been made in the past in Afghanistan or anywhere else that the blame should land anywhere else but firmly on the desks of the politicians."

According to the media reports, Britain's freshly elected Prime Minister David Cameron this week returned from a trip to the conflict-ridden country. British troops are stationed mainly in the south, where they are engaged in fierce firefights with the Taliban.

Cameron during his trip said that "nobody wants British troops to be in Afghanistan a moment longer than is necessary."

It has also been reported that Afghanistan has been a costly war for Britain, which is due to publish a major strategic defense review this fall. Britain's last strategic defense review was done in 1998, years before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and in Afghanistan. (With inputs from Agencies)