London - A planned international conference on the future of Afghanistan should set a "clear timetable" for the transfer of authority to Afghan security forces so that foreign troops can go home, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said late Monday.

In a key foreign policy speech in London, Brown confirmed his earlier offer that Britain would be prepared to host a planned NATO conference on Afghanistan in January in London.

The venue of the meeting has not been decided, and other countries have come forward offering venues, including Germany.

"I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished. It should identify a process for transferring, district by district, to full Afghan control and, if at all possible, set a timetable for transfer starting in 2010," Brown said.

A BBC analyst said that Brown had not quite laid out an "exit strategy" for Afghanistan in his speech, but "pointed to the exit door."

Brown delivered a passionate defence of the deployment of international forces in Afghanistan, claiming that "significant and long-lasting damage" had already been inflicted on the al-Qaeda network.

Since January 2008, seven of the top dozen figures in al-Qaeda had been killed, "depleting its reserves of experienced leaders and sapping its morale," Brown said.

This process, he said, must not be reversed "by retreat or irresolution." (dpa)