CAMP LEATHERNECK (Afghanistan) - THE new commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan said on Wednesday foreign troops need to make a 'cultural shift' away from conventional warfare and focus on winning the support of Afghans.

General Stanley McChrystal, who took charge of some 90,000 international troops in Afghanistan last week, said most forces were designed for conventional 'high intensity' combat aimed at 'destroying the enemy' and using 'every asset' available.

'This is appropriate for the conventional battlefield where it is army against army, but not appropriate for the COIN (counter-insurgency) battlefield,' Gen McChrystal said on a visit to the new US Marine base in southern Helmand Province. 'In my view what we've really got to do is make a cultural view,' he told reporters.

Gen McChrystal is meeting commanders around the country as part of a 'listening tour' and is expected to release 'within days' new guidelines for troops aimed at limiting civilian deaths that have put their mission at risk and have outraged Afghans.

A US military report issued last week found air strikes by US B1 bombers in May that killed dozens of civilians had violated orders already in place at the time and recommended drawing up new guidelines soon.

General McChrystal said that while everyone knew 'academically' how to conduct a counter-insurgency campaign, the problem was getting the message to soldiers on the ground who often reverted to 'automatic reflective responses' of conventional warfare.

'What I'm trying to do is help everybody shape their behaviour and understand that. It's going to be almost the equivalent of an information campaign,' Gen McChrystal said.

'I've learnt that if you feel very strongly about certain things you have to say them very clearly, you have to say them very often, and you have to repeat the same thing over and over again,' he said.

The US military is to publish an unclassified version of its new guidelines to show the public the steps it has taken to minimise civilian casualties.

Gen McChrystal said the new directive would not amount to a surrender to the insurgents. 'You surrender to the Taleban when you give up the fight for the support of the people. That's the decisive terrain. We are going to do counter insurgency here in an offensive manner.' -- REUTERS