Kabul, Feb 22 (DPA) The Taliban has deployed 6,000 fighters in preparation for a spring offensive against the government and foreign forces in Afghanistan, said a leader of the Islamic milita that once ruled the country.

"The attack is imminent," Mullah Dadullah said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television Wednesday.

"The number of Taliban mujahedeen who are ready to launch the spring battle has reached 6,000," he said, adding that they were hiding in places such as tunnels ahead of the fighting.

Dadullah said he was confident that the numbers of Taliban fighters would increase and might hit 10,000, predicting the fundamentalist rebel forces would win more recruits as NATO countries increase their troop levels in Afghanistan.

"The more the number of Jewish and Christian soldiers who fight us increases, the more the Afghan people will be encouraged to join us," he said.

Dadullah, a Pashtun known as a vicious fighter, is believed to be one of the close advisers of Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Before a US-led offensive ousted the Taliban from power in 2001, Dadullah belonged to Omar's 10-man leadership council.

Colonel Tom Collins, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, also said Wednesday that the Taliban was preparing to ramp up its fighting as the weather warms and the ISAF expected "hard fighting in selected areas," particularly in the south, where the Taliban forces primarily operate.

News of the expected offensive came as the ISAF's death toll rose this week with deaths reported in southern as well as eastern Afghanistan.

The ISAF - which, along with the US-led coalition, has 46,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan - reported Thursday that one of its soldiers died in eastern Afghanistan from injuries though not sustained in combat.

A day earlier, the Spanish and British governments said they lost one soldier each deployed with the ISAF.