By Adrian Croft

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Terrorists in Afghanistan pose a direct threat to British security and it is even more important now than in 2001 that British troops be there to confront them, Defence Secretary John Hutton said on Tuesday.

In his first major speech since being appointed last month, Hutton said that pulling out the 8,000 British troops fighting in Afghanistan would deal "a profoundly dangerous blow" to British interests.

"For me, the national security arguments that took us to Afghanistan are stronger today than in 2001," Hutton said. "If walking away then would have damaged those interests, scuttling away now would deal them a profoundly dangerous blow."

Britain took part in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion to oust the Taliban government because Afghanistan was a base from which al Qaeda leaders were directing terrorist operations, "operations that would ... have been aimed at us here in the UK," he said.

"In my view our engagement is as much a security priority for the UK today as the world wars or the Cold War of the last century," he told the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based thinktank.

British troops in the southern province of Helmand have been engaged in tough fighting against resurgent Taliban guerrillas. Some 122 British soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is due to visit Britain later this week, and Hutton said it was right for the Afghan government to talk to those who "aspire to lay down their arms and enter the political process."

But reconciliation would happen only when the Afghan government and the NATO-led force were seen to be winning politically and militarily, and prepared to stay for the long haul, said Hutton, who visited Afghanistan and Iraq last month.

Saudi Arabia said last month that it had hosted a meeting between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking at a news conference, did not rule out sending more British troops to Afghanistan but said Britain was doing enough and its NATO allies should share more of the burden.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to send more troops to Afghanistan, where the United States already has more than 30,000 military personnel.

Asked how he would respond if Obama asked him to send more British troops, Brown said: "We are the second largest force (in Afghanistan). Of course we are ready to consider what's necessary, but it must be part of a burden-sharing exercise where different countries ... play their part." (Reporting by Adrian Croft; editing by Tim Pearce)

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